Charlesbridge Publishing Pythagoras And The Ratios: A Math Adventure

I'm a Devotee of Susan Wise Bauer and this was one of the many wonderful choices she recommends in her book The Well Trained Mind. I've read the Story Of The World by Bauer to my kindergartner and she has a huge thirst for history. Her first comment was, "Pythagoras? That name sounds Greek." I owe that kind of thought process to Susan Wise Bauer. I would encourage parents of young children not to underestimate the things that they can understand and remember. Be bold! Pass up the potato chip brain food that is Dora the Explorer and introduce your small children to history and science and art and math. You will be amazed and delighted by the pleasure they find in it when you make it regularly available to them. There is plenty in this book that my six-year-old doesn't quite grasp yet, but she is very keen on the story of a boy who appears about her age and is doing all sorts of interesting and clever things with math. Everything you introduce to your young child's brain is Velcro ready for more information to attach to it.

This story would be better if it spent a little more time on clarifying the idea of ratio and a little less on trying to be amusing, but I really appreciate all the Charlesbridge mathematic adventures, for being many-layered and classic - you can return to them again and again and get something different and valuable out every time, adding more strands to your understanding of the topic. They work for adults also, so they are very good family read-alouds.

If your child is showing any interest with math and science, keep buying great books that help to feed the little growing mind and you won't even know when the little mind will turn into a BIG STEM genius! Little by little.. page by page.. book by book.. they get there.. into the stars their mind goes! The book was absolute hit with my little ones and they kept coming back to it many times after initial reading, that is what makes a good book great book. LOVE IT! Get one for your local school's library too! They will love you for that!

This book is fantastic to teach ratios to your students. You can do so many activities from just reading this one book. Plus, you can make it interdisciplinary by incorporating music!

This book is written in an interesting narrative, and couples the story with the math concept of ratio and proportion. Pythagoras gets distracted from his chores, as he works on how to construct musical instruments that will harmonize. The ending is very humorous! I had been searching for a book that addressed the topic of ratio, and this book serves the need well. A must add to a teacher's literacy library!