On Beyond a Million: An Amazing Math Journey (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Paul Meisel (Illustrator) "A square yard in the rocky area of seashore between high tide and low tide may be home to 900,000 animals..." (more)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This "math journey" progresses exponentially as kids try to keep up with the yield of an out-of-control popcorn machine. Professor X teaches them to count by powers of 10, demonstrating up to a googol (10100) and beyond, as the kids provide a running commentary. While they don't seem much closer to knowing how many kernels of popcorn they have, they do learn a lot of big numbers and entertain each other with such nonsense names as "splendillion" and "elephantillion." Schwartz (Magic of a Million Activity Book) originally used bags of popcorn to demonstrate powers of 10 in school presentations. However, here the hands-on technique of counting the kernels is never explained; the value of the popcorn example is less clear in book form. Sidebars rattle off numerical trivia, adding zeros on every spread (e.g., "One little brown bat can snap up 600 mosquitoes per hour"; "There are 40,000 different characters in Chinese"). These ever-larger numbers inspire Meisel's (The Fixits) lively cartoon illustrations of 105 bees and five billion (or 5 x 109) people in the world. While readers' minds will be reeling with zeroes, they will be buoyed by Schwartz's and Meisel's infinite enthusiasm for their subject. Ages 6-10. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-4-Schwartz helps youngsters conceptualize enormous numbers by introducing them to counting by powers of ten. Professor X, along with his dog Y, comes to the rescue of some children with an out-of-control popcorn popper as they futilely attempt to count the kernels. The Professor begins to "power count," rapidly reaching large numbers through the addition of zeros. The scenes change as the Professor counts from 1 to 10 to 100 to 1,000 , from a camp out in the woods, to the seashore, rain forest, north pole . All the while, the children echo his explanations of the counting process. Each double-page spread is illustrated with watercolors in lively cartoon fashion with lots of detail. Sidebars include one section where Y shows how exponents can be manipulated, and another section entitled "Did You Know?" The factoids presented show the prevalence of things in large number: "Every day 37,000,000 (thirty-seven million) Tootsie Rolls come rolling out of the factory." Yet, they bear no relationship to power counting, and may even serve as a distraction. And while the children do reach large numbers counting this way, they never actually count the popcorn. Also, exponents are generally not introduced until fifth or sixth grade, where this picture book will have less appeal. However, for the most part it works as an introduction to the subject, and fans of Schwartz's How Much Is a Million (1985) and If You Made a Million (1989, both Lothrop) will probably enjoy it.
Grace Oliff, Ann Blanche Smith School, Hillsdale, NJ
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday Books for Young Readers (September 7, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385322178
• ISBN-13: 978-0385322171
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #845,590 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Teacher review, August 17, 2001

By	Wendy "waknap" (Hillsdale, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This book is definately for older children. I teach 5th grade and it is to much for them. The facts that are included are very interesting and my kids love those. For my fifth graders i only use the creative facts throughout the book to help my students realize how big a million, billion,...and so in is. I felt the story was hard to follow. It is all in bubble - like a cartoon which was confusing to follow and not easy to read. For older students i think this book would be great. It does teach how easy it is to count using the power of 10's.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars worth reading, February 8, 2002

By	Paula Burch - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

My nine-year-old enjoyed having me read this book to him, though it was not nearly as compelling as some other math books we've read for fun, such as Math Trek or The Number Devil. I liked his getting a better picture of the real meanings of big numbers, since he'd had a lamentable tendency to use the words for large numbers, such as "million", "billion", and "trillion", interchangeably. My five-year-old enjoyed the pictures, though he really did not get the concepts.

5.0 out of 5 stars google and googleplex, September 5, 2007

By	C. Tseng - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: On Beyond a Million: An Amazing Math Journey (Paperback)

On Beyond a Million is my sons favorite math storybook. Since reading this book, I hear them using the words google and googleplex in conversations with each other. They are young (ages 5 and 7), so I don't think they understood all of it, but my seven year old figured out exponents from the book, and now he can do exponents on his own. It introduced more advanced math concepts in a fun way.