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Five Faves: Stories about Math

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 Are you looking for fun ways to build an interest in math without having to look through boring informational books? Try one of these stories about math:

Friends Beyond Measure
By Lalena Fisher
New York: Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2023. Picture Book.

If you are looking for a fun, easy way to talk about graphs with your kids, this is my new favorite book on the subject. Each page has a different tool used to measure, from time lines, to bar graphs, to Venn diagrams. Homeschoolers could make a week's worth of lessons from the content on its pages. And to boot, it's a sweet story about the love friends have with each other and the difficulty when a friend moves away.

Again, Essie?
Written by Jenny Lacika
Illustrated by Teresa Martinez
Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge Publishing, 2022. Picture Book.

In this story, Rafael needs to protect his toys from his younger sister. So while she's taking a nap, he decides to build a barrier between her and his room. He gathers objects from all over his house to build the barricade. It teaches kids about spatial reasoning as he has to flip and turn items to get them to fit. If your kids enjoy this book, it's part of a whole series of storytelling math books that include concepts like patterns, counting, and problem solving.

The Bark Park
Written by Lori Haskins Houran
Illustrated by John Joven
New York: Kane Press, 2022. Easy Reader. 32 pages.

This story mixes community service and math together for a fun adventure. When Lila and her friends notice that elderly Mr. Romero doesn't have anywhere to sit at the park, they decide to wash dogs in an effort to raise money for a bench to put in the park. Along the way they learn not only about helping others, but also about percentages.

Talia's Codebook for Mathletes
By Marissa Moss
Somerville, MA: Walker Books, 2023. Fiction. 224 pages.

If you like your math with a heavy side of puzzle solving and code breaking, this book is for you. Talia has high hopes for middle school until her best friend, Dash, decides that he can't be seen spending all of his free time with a girl. At least she still gets to see him at mathlete practice, even if that does mean that she has to put up with a mean team captain. That is, until she decides to create her own, all-girl, mathlete team to compete against the boys. This book has a graphic format similar to the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. So if you like your chapter books with pictures interspersed, this is a great choice for you.

Grasping Mysteries
By Jeannine Atkins
New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2020. Fiction. 305 pages.

This book is a good mix of fiction and nonfiction, telling stories about real women who loved math. It's written in verse and split into sections about different women including Florence Nightingale and Katherine Johnson, so it can easily be skimmed as well as used to learn about specific people. For those who want to encourage girls to participate in STEM fields, or learn about the real women in these fields, this is a great choice.
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