Amazon.com: Easy Math Puzzles (9780823412839): David A. Adler, Cynthia Fisher: Books

Book Description

A collection of mathematical riddles involving people, animals, coins, or food.

#outer_postBodyPS { display: none; } #psGradient { display: none; } #psPlaceHolder { display: none; } #psExpand { display: none; } A collection of mathematical riddles involving people, animals, coins, or food.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 3-5. A delightful array of math problems that stimulate and challenge children to use critical thinking skills to determine solutions?and they're fun. Adler's puzzles require clear reasoning more than sophisticated mathematics know-how or scratch paper. One example: two mothers and two daughters are walking in the rain, all under the protection of the same umbrella, yet only three women appear in the illustration. Where is the fourth woman? Of course, there is no fourth woman since the three females are grandmother, mother, and daughter: two mothers and two daughters. The categories include people and animals, coin conundrums, and food problems. Finally, there are favorites such as, "Which weighs more, 1 pound of feathers or 1 pound of rocks?" The answers are provided at the book's end. Fisher's cartoon-style illustrations are cheerful and lively, but are produced in black-and-white; only the cover illustration is in color. Challenging and fun, this fine title is a worthwhile addition to any library.?Jerry D. Flack, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Gr. 2^-5. Despite the book's title, some of these puzzles depend on logic and wordplay rather than math for their solutions. Kids will enjoy challenging themselves and (once they know the answers) their friends to solve problems such as this: "Jason goes to the fruit and vegetable store. There are 14 ears of corn in the bin. Jason leaves the store with 3 ears. How much corn remains in the bin?" (Answer: "13. He left the store with 1 ear of corn and his own 2 ears.") With one or two challenges per page and answers in the back of the book, there's plenty of room for Fisher's cartoonlike line-and-gray-wash illustrations. Librarians may want to shelve this with the other books of puzzlers rather than in the American literature section, as suggested in the CIP. Teachers might enjoy using these brainteasers with their class. Carolyn Phelan

More About the Author

› Visit Amazon's David A. Adler Page

I write both fiction and non-fiction. I begin my fiction with the main character. The story comes later. Of course, since I'll be spending a lot of time with each main character, why not have him or her be someone I like? Andy Russell is based, loosely, on a beloved member of my family. He's fun to write about and the boy who inspired the character is even more fun to know. Cam Jansen is based even more loosely on a classmate of mine in the first grade whom we all envied because we thought he had a photographic memory. Now, especially when my children remind me of some promise they said I made, I really envy Cam's amazing memory. I have really enjoyed writing about Cam Jansen and her many adventures. For my books of non-fiction I write about subjects I find fascinating. My first biography was Our Golda: The Life of Golda Meir. To research that book, I bought a 1905 set of encyclopedia. Those books told me what each of the places Golda Meir lived in were like when she lived there. I've written many other biographies, including books about Martin Luther King, Jr; George Washington; Abraham Lincoln; Helen Keller; Harriet Tubman; Anne Frank; and many others in my Picture Book Biography series. I've been a Yankee and a Lou Gehrig fan for decades so I wrote Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man. It's more the story of his great courage than his baseball playing. Children face all sorts of challenges and it's my hope that some will be inspired by the courage of Lou Gehrig. I am working now on another book about a courageous man, Janusz Korczak. My book One Yellow Daffodil is fiction, too, but it's based on scores of interviews I did with Holocaust survivors for my books We Remember the Holocaust, Child of the Warsaw Ghetto, The Number on My Grandfather's Arm, and Hiding from the Nazis. The stories I heard were compelling. One Yellow Daffodil is both a look to the past and to the future, and expresses my belief in the great spirit and strength of our children. I love math and was a math teacher for many years, so it was fun for me to write several math books including Fraction Fun, Calculator Riddles, and Shape Up! Fun with Triangles and Other Polygons. In my office I have this sign, "Don't Think. Just Write!" and that's how I work. I try not to worry about each word, even each sentence or paragraph. For me stories evolve. Writing is a process. I rewrite each sentence, each manuscript, many times. And I work with my editors. I look forward to their suggestions, their help in the almost endless rewrite process. Well, it's time to get back to dreaming, and to writing, my dream of a job. David A. Adler is the author of more than 175 children's books, including the Young Cam Jansen series. He lives in Woodmere, New York.