Customer Reviews

The Best Of Times

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a teacher, this book is a wonderful resource because it does not promote the memorization of multiplication facts, but rather it teaches the reader to problem solve and that there are different ways to approach a problem. As the title suggests, it is full of 'strategies' - when students attempt a mathematical problem of any sort, you want them to have a bank of strategies to draw from. This book is ideal for that. My students enjoyed the playful rhymes, almost musical in a way, as well as the bright, vibrant illustrations of all of Tang's books. Tang has a wonderful way of making math "make sense" for kids. Two thumbs up!

I bought this book thinking it might help my daughter learn her multiplication facts. However, for the strategies explained in this book to help, you'd have to be a math whiz, and also know a fair number of multiplication facts to begin with. For example, this is the strategy for multiplying by 6: "Six is pretty quick to do, just multiply by 3 then 2. If this sounds like too much trouble, triple first before you double!" (!!) Now, this might be handy if the book taught an easy way to triple, but the strategy for multiplying by 3 is: "Three is as easy as can be, if you triple what you see. In other words just add it thrice, this simply is one more than twice!" Simple, hunh? I would have given the book 1 star, but I liked the illustrations.

This is a very cute book. It has multiplication fact rhymes.

However, if your intent is for learning, this product is not for you. I thought it may help my third grader learn his times tables. It uses complicated wording and formulas.

I'm not sure at what grade level this would be useful. I say if you have a child ages 10 (maybe) and up who just love math, go for it.

Otherwise, leave it on the shelf.

First: memorize the math facts. I recommend Learning Wrap Ups Multiplication Wrap Ups and daily practice. Second grade is the right time to start.

Then have fun with this book, that illustrates handy shortcuts and mental tricks for the times tables.

Greg Tang gets your kids thinking.

I love Greg Tang's books and his ability to take a subject like math and make it fun, fun, fun. I got this book for my son without seeing it first, and I hoped it was going to be like his other books that make the child solve problems. That is not the case with this book. Instead, this is a book that teaches you tricks to learn how to multiply, number by number, from zero through 10. I have to agree with the review (2 star) from the person who thought that some of the concepts he provided for solving math problems was a bit more complicated than it needed to be. My son, who already knows multiplication, found his suggestions for multiplying by 6's and 8's was way more cumbersome and confusing than it should be. I think this is a great book for a child who is just learning multiplication, but I would not recommend it for someone who knows the subject well. As usual, he does use fun rhymes, and the artwork in the book is fabulous.

This book shines light from unexpected angles in kids' math. You will realize there's more to multiplication table, than simply memorizing it. I recommend this book highly, not only to those who's learning multiplication, but to many, many adults out there who struggle with calculating tips or balancing a checkbook. You can apply his method to calculate much larger numbers in a flash!

The team behind The Grapes of Math and Math for All Seasons follows up with a third title for aspiring mathematicians: The Best of Times: Math Strategies That Multiply by Greg Tang, illus. by Harry Briggs. Tang eschews multiplication tables in favor of emphasizing a better understanding of numbers and quantities. Bouncy, rhyming ditties remind kids, among other things, that 0 times anything is zero ("For every problem it's the same,/ zilch or zero is its name!") Briggs's cheery signature artwork, featuring an active menagerie, keeps the concepts clear and the mood light.

Greg Tang has done it again, combining literature with mathematics and giving a concrete concept of multiplication with pictures and rhyme. A great introduction to multiplication.

This book has help my six year old understand the concept of multiplication. Thank you so much!!!

The basic theme of the book is that one can break multiplication problems down into simpler pieces and then assemble the results to get the answers. Nothing wrong with that overall approach, but unfortunately it's out of place here. Of course the associative and distributive laws are basic facts that we would all want kids to learn. But there is a time and a place for them.

The idea promoted by the author, that you should figure out what 8 times 6 is by tripling 8 and then doubling the result is not only silly, it's inefficient and can lead to mistakes by kids at the level at which the book is aimed. The method involves two operations, finding 8 times 3 and then finding 24 times 2, each of which can lead to error, and neither of which is easier than simply learning what 8 times 6 is.

How about finding 8 times 7 by finding 8 times 5, 8 times 2 and adding the results, as the book instructs? Now we have 3 operations, two multiplications and an addition. And the author would have you find 8 times 5 by taking half of 8 times 10, which replaces one operation by two.

Sure, we adults can do these steps in our heads lightning fast, but I can tell you that my grandson would do 8 times 5 by laboriously counting to 8 five times and trying to keep track of the sum (because his teacher has told him that multiplication is repeated addition) and might easily get 36 as the answer. Or 37. Or whatever. Then he'd work out 8 times 2 the same way. Maybe get it right. Then he'd add. Maybe get that right, too. (He'd do 40 plus 16 by counting up from 40, because his teacher lets him do that and, besides, adding 2-digit numbers is something else and we're studying multiplication now, so we can forget about that stuff.)

How is this more sensible than memorizing what 8 times 7 is?

This book is wholly inappropriate for teaching (or, god forbid, replacing) the multiplication tables.

So how about using it to learn to multiply bigger numbers? Say 17 times 7? Easy, just multiply 17 by 5 (which you do by multiplying it by 10 and taking half), multiply it by 2 (which you do by adding it to itself) and then adding the results. I don't think so.

The method is completely impractical for 2-digit numbers. So all it's good for is 1-digit numbers, in other words as a replacement for the multiplication tables. Which it's not good for.

I love the poems and the pictures and the associative and distributive laws, but as a method of teaching arithmetic, this book is definitely a step in the wrong direction. I've come to expect much better from this author.