Pet Store Subtraction (Rookie Read-About Math)
February 14, 2012 by admin
Filed under Best Pet Food
Pet Store Subtraction (Rookie Read-About Math)
The popular Rookie Books expand their horizons – to all corners of the globe! With this series all about geography, emergent readers will take off on adventures to cities, nations, waterways, and habitats around the world and right in their own backyards.
List Price: $ 5.95
Price: $ 5.71
Added Value in a Subtraction Book,
This deceptively simple book that presents subtraction problems in an applied setting, a pet store. At first glance, the problems appear too simple, and the narrative fairly dull. However, since subtraction IS fairly straightforward (more so than say, multiplication) the author cleverly shows what subtraction can and cannot do. For example, Jen (the fresh-faced teen who works at the pet store, sells 8 of her 20 parakeets in one morning. The text shows that 20-8 = 12 (all answers are presented in the text, not, for example, at the back of the book.) Many books might stop right here, but “Pet Store Subtraction” adds a practical, evaluative question: Does Jen need to order more parakeets for the store? The answer is no, because she only needs to maintain a minimum flock of ten parakeets at any one time. Ribke includes similar 2-part questions (along with bright, in-focus pictures of the critters) throughout the book.
At a more advanced–or at least, different–level, the author places young readers in Jen’s place. She sells 4 out of 9 squeaky dog toys, leaving five, but author Ribke doesn’t mention a minimum number. Instead, Ribke asks the reader how many squeaky dog toys Jen should buy, with the comment,” She doesn’t want to run out of them!” as the only guidance. Similarly, kids will see that 12 hermit crabs – 6 hermit crabs leaves 6 left, but Ribke pulls a sly one when he asks “How many hermit crabs will Jen need to order?” This is another judgement call, not answerable mathematically, and one of the most important math skills is differentiating what is relevant from what is not, what is given from what is unknown, and what can be calculated from what is not strictly a math problem. This small, attractive 31-page book features a brief vocabulary section (with pictures illustrating the words) and an index. Simone Ribke has a bachelor’s in Elementary Education, and has worked on a variety of kids’ education materials. Her experience shows here.
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