I'm Trying to Love Math

by Bethany Barton, Bethany Barton (Illustrator)

Overview

Children's Choice Award winner Bethany Barton applies her signature humor to the scariest subject of all: math!

Do multiplication tables give you hives? Do you break out in a sweat when you see more than a few numbers hanging out together? Then I'm Trying to Love Math is for you! In her signature hilarious style, Bethany Barton introduces readers to the things (and people) that use math in amazing ways — like music, and spacecraft, and even baking cookies! This isn't a how-to math book, it's a way to think differently about math as a necessary and cool part of our lives!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780451480903
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	07/02/2019
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	118,164
Product dimensions:	9.60(w) x 10.40(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	560L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Bethany Barton is an author and illustrator who celebrates life with painting, laughter, and as much time on her snowboard as possible. She lives and works (making art and painting sets) in Los Angeles.

Editorial Reviews

07/15/2019

Barton’s droll follow-up to I’m Trying to Love Spiders begins with a clear-cut statement: “If you ask me, math is not very lovable.” Moreover, the narrator indicates, “4 in 10 Americans hate math.” At this, an adorable purple alien appears, asking a question—“Did you just use math to explain how much you don’t like it?”—that introduces the book’s conceit: wherever you go, there you math. And the alien is on to something—in loose pen-and-ink art, it describes the subject’s ability to bring people together, its contributions to music, navigation, and food. Math loathers may not be comforted as Barton shows the usefulness of both simple arithmetic and massive equations, but it becomes quite clear that the narrator and readers can’t help but run into the stuff (“Wait. Baking is just a bunch of math, isn’t it?”). A hilarious meta exploration of the ubiquity (like it or not) of mathematics. Ages 4–8. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"Full of interesting and amazing facts and the many ways math is crucial in oureveryday lives, this entertaining, vibrant text is sure to get young readers excited about the subject." — Booklist

From the Publisher

06/01/2019

K-Gr 2—As an invisible narrator begins to express a distaste for math, a three-eyed purple alien arrives in a flying saucer to make a case for why math is important and helpful. Unconvinced, the narrator makes several attempts to love math but these efforts seem to prove that math is boring. All of these arguments are rebuffed by the alien, who shows that math is a crucial part of cooking, music, nature, and navigation. By the end of the book, both the narrator and the reader come to the realization that math is connected to many things that they enjoy, so maybe they already love it. This engaging volume is filled with colorful, splashy illustrations; two unique lettering styles are used to differentiate between the narrator's words and those spoken by the alien. Although it is not as much of a smash as Barton's I'm Trying to Love Spiders, this book offers ample opportunity for readers to interact with the text and have conversations with and about the narrator and the friendly, pro-math alien. VERDICT For early elementary students who are showing an aversion to mathematical concepts, Barton's characters might show them that real-life math applications exist in things that they already love.—Sarah Reid, Four County Library System, NY

School Library Journal