Math Appeal

Math Appeal is a collection of "mind-stretching math riddles," which classifies it as a concept book (since it is written to teach mathematics). However, the riddles inside the story are cleverly written and have some of the rich language qualities that make books fun to read. Each riddle takes up two pages-- one with a picture and one with a riddle describing the problem to be solved. The riddles could all be solved by counting, but that is not the purpose of the book. The purpose of the book is to have children think outside of the box and explore various different ways to solve the same problem. I really enjoyed reading a note from the author, Greg Tang, in the beginning of the book. He notes, "I use poems and pictures to encourage clever, creative thinking, and I provide an answer key that teaches four important concepts: thinking out-of-the-box, finding strategic sums, using subtraction to add, and simplifying through patterns and symmetires. I encourage kids to discover different ways of solving each problem and to decide for themselves which approach works best." Another connection that I made in trying to solve some of these riddles is using arrays and multiplication. Students frequently struggle with this in the beginning, but this book presents those ideas in a unique way.

I wouldn't do all of the riddles in this book at one shot, but it would be interesting to do one riddle a day to warm students up and get them REALLY thinking. Encourage kids to find different ways of solving the same problem, and students might find a solution that you didn't even see yourself!