From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 4-The math concepts of addition, large numbers, and fractions are illustrated with artfully decorated pizzas depicting a smiling face, a cat, a flag, etc. The accompanying text counts the ingredients: "-five eggplant stars, six red onion strips, seven cheese stripes, and eight red pepper pieces." Numerals are used to show the total of two items, for example, 5 + 6 = 11. Another pie is symmetrically decorated with 100 garnishes and duplicated 10 times on one page and 100 times on the next to illustrate the numbers 1000 and 10,000. Millions and billions are demonstrated by citing the number of pizzas needed to circle the globe and to reach the moon. The book concludes with the pies divided to show fractional concepts. The tone is instructional rather than entertaining, but this title's use for teaching may be complicated by the wide range of topics covered. The concepts are as simple as 1 + 2 = 3 and as complex as choosing the larger fraction between 3/12 and 1/4. Although the text gives some interesting facts about pizza, it sometimes lacks a clear focus. Still, the use of pizza provides a real-life application for learning. It is most effective in illustrating fractional concepts and helping students visualize large numbers.
Adele Greenlee, Bethel College, St. Paul, MNCopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Booklist
Gr. 1-3. Like Loreen Leedy's
Measuring Penny (1998), this takes some basic mathematical concepts and illustrates them winningly--in this case, with pizza. The crust (with cheese and tomato sauce) represents a big, fat zero. Toppings, which illustrate numbers from 1 to 20, make things more interesting; combinations not only produce pictures (clocks, maps, flags) on the pizza but also illustrate a little addition, multiplication, and so on. Thirteen onion strips, 14 chives, 15 pepperoni slices, and 16 basil leaves make a pretty impressive cat face, and by the time children get to 100 pieces of topping (mushrooms, peppers, olives, etc.), they'll have learned that Americans eat more than enough pizza every year to make a crust-to-crust path to the moon. The computer-manipulated pizzas are masterworks of food art and may inspire not only counting and fractions but also some cheese and pepperoni decoupage.
GraceAnne DeCandidoCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
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