The Quest for a Tangram Dragon

by Christine Liu-Perkins, Lynn Scurfield (Illustrator)

Overview

A clever and charming introduction to the Tangram puzzle, a classic Chinese shape puzzle that's beloved in early math curriculum.

A brave Little Triangle seeks a Chinese dragon to end the long drought. On the quest, Little Triangle meets other shapes who want to help. Using the magic of tangrams, the shapes do amazing things together:

Two triangles flip and flap to make a butterfly! With a square, they swap and swivel to make a bat! Four shapes jump and bump to become a bird.

But there's still no sign of the dragon they need.

When they reach a mountain, no matter how much they hop and plop, huddle and muddle, or leap and heap, the shapes can't find a way to the top. How will they ever find the dragon they're searching for?

Author Christine Liu-Perkins and illustrator Lynn Scurfield celebrate tangrams in this clever and warm-hearted story about the power of persistence and teamwork.

The book includes tangram shapes for readers to cut out, so they can play with their very own tangram puzzle!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781547608058
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	08/20/2024
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	987,376
Product dimensions:	10.35(w) x 10.30(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Christine Liu-Perkins is a writer and researcher who specializes in Chinese history and culture. Her book At Home in Her Tomb: Lady Dai and the Ancient Chinese Treasures of Mawangdui unearths one of China's top archaeological finds of the last century. She has a Ph.D in educational psychology. Born in Boston and raised near Kansas City, Christine now lives in Colorado.
christineliuperkins.com

Lynn Scurfield is a mixed media illustrator based in Toronto, Canada. She is the illustrator of several picture books including Flight: Notes from Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Two New Years, and Friends are Friends Forever.
www.lynnscurfield.com

Editorial Reviews

A gateway to hours, if not years, of mind-expanding play.” —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

07/01/2024

K-Gr 2—For hundreds of years, tangrams have been used to support mathematical awareness and problem-solving. In this book, the pieces of the tangram come alive, and they are on a quest to find the dragon who has the power to break the drought in their beloved home. As the pieces join together, they find ways to investigate the world around them by becoming creatures like a butterfly, a fish, a dog, and more. With each new addition, the possibilities of what the pieces can become grow to new heights. This charming picture book brings the tangram to life in an approachable and unconventional way. The pieces of the tangram all have unique personalities, and they demonstrate persistence as they work together to create shapes that are beneficial to their quest. Though there are complementary backgrounds on each page, the tangram pieces themselves are the primary focus of the images, and their specific colors help readers to identify each one. Unfortunately, the text is small and remains static throughout the book, but the storytelling makes the tale well-suited to be shared with classrooms practicing tangrams themselves. Chinese language, culture, and history are embedded within the story, and back matter gives readers insight into the design of the book while inspiring them to create tangram shapes of their own. VERDICT This fun, STEM-focused book blends Chinese culture, history, and mathematics into a useful and memorable story.—Mary R. Lanni

School Library Journal

2024-05-04
Introducing the classic puzzle known as the tangram, a simple tale shows how seven geometric shapes can be arranged into a host of animals and other things.

“Nǐ hǎo! Hello!” While searching for a dragon to bring rain to the dry land, Little Triangle meets and makes a butterfly with Second Little Triangle. The duo encounters Square, and they all combine to create a bat. Parallelogram, Medium Triangle, and a pair of Big Triangles join the fray—until at last all assemble into a dragon that soars into the sky to create clouds. Scurfield draws simple faces but leaves the shapes intact in the illustrations so that hands-on readers have the option of placing their own “tans” from an attached sheet of cutouts (not seen) on top of each. In several full-spread galleries, she adds dozens of other tangram figures to create. Along with noting in the afterword that the seven pieces can be made into thousands more, Liu-Perkins looks at the many ways this low-tech puzzle promotes concentration and persistence, teaches mathematical concepts, and fosters creativity and storytelling skills. She also traces its history and uses in China, where it was invented, and beyond, and notes that the animals that the shapes form have cultural significance in China. The plotline may be too rudimentary to excite much response in younger audiences, but this may well open a gateway to hours, if not years, of mind-expanding play.

Inviting, if more utilitarian than literary. (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews