Early Grade/Early Reader Books
26 Letters and 99 Cents by Tana Hoban, Fish Eyes: A Book You Can Count On by Lois Ehlert, and Rooster’s Off to See the World by Eric Carle are all great books to use to promote numerical literacy in the classroom. Combined with great stories and wonderful illustrations, these books contain mathematics problems that include counting, addition, subtraction, and money.
26 Letters and 99 Cents is a fantastic book that incorporates learning the alphabet with mathematics. On one side, students and children will learn all 26 letters (both capital and lower case). On the other side of the book, they will learn counting skills, addition, and subtraction. Students and children will learn to count by ones, fives, and tens; they will also learn how to make the numbers using money.
Rooster’s Off to See the World is a great book by Eric Carle, also the author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The book is about a rooster who travels around the world making friends. First, the rooster meets 2 cats, then 3 frogs, and so on. This book is sure to engage your students and children with the wonderful pictures and Carle’s creative writing. You could use the book to create your own math problems using the characters in the book or as a fun way for students and children to begin counting. This book is also great for creative writing, having your students think about where they would want to travel in the world and who they might meet along the way.
Fish Eyes: A Book You Can Count On is great for beginner counters and is also good for beginner readers as well. On each page, the reader counts the increasing number of fish. Along with the counting, the reader is presented with descriptive text to help capture their attention and engage them in the story.
Not only will your students and children be developing their reading skills with these books, but they will be working on their numerical literacy as well!
**Always remember to put your own twist on reading these stories.
**Create your own math problems using the pictures in the stories.
**Almost all counting books can be transformed to fit into a lesson.
Advanced Mathematics Books
The Math Curse by Jon Scieszka and The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure by Hans Magnus Enzensberger are great books for older students and children to read about mathematics. As children get older, it is hard for some to stay interested in math. The constant "learn how to do this" followed by filling out worksheets becomes repetitive after a while. To spice up learning more advanced mathematics, I would suggest having students and young adults read these books.
The Math Curse is a fantastic book that creates a connection between real life and mathematics. The book focuses on how “you can think of almost everything as a math problem.” Problems in the book range from simple addition and subtraction to multiplication, time, and measurements. This is a great way to get students and children involved with math, especially when they don’t believe math is used in everyday life.
**This book has some more advanced problems; however, there are enough simple problems that it could be used in early grades to promote numerical literacy and make an early connection between everyday life and mathematics.
The Number Devil is a great book about a child, Robert, who enters into a magical mathematics land. There he meets the Number Devil and is faced with math concepts and problems. In this book, Robert is faced with problems concerning roots, number sequences, matrices, exponents, graphs, and other mathematical concepts. This book is a creative way to get students and young adults to enjoy mathematics and continue to develop their numerical literacy.