The Probability of Everything (Sarah Everett)

 

This could be the best book I've  read all year. In the first 200 pages it was okay and then there was a twist that changed everything. I had 100 pages to go until book club tonight and I thought I'd get up early and finish the rest of the book. I didn't quite finish before school started so I had to steal time here and there. I finished it during DEAR time while everyone was reading and when DEAR was over I said to my class, "Can we just sit still and be sad for a moment?" Of course they wanted to know why....and it wasn't something I could even explain. I think the fact that there is so much math involved in the storyline caused me to suspend any idea that it was nothing but realistic fiction....only to realize I had been totally fooled! 

I just loved this book. It is one I'd read again. It would be interesting to read it a second time to see what subtle hints were given that I totally missed. It isn't one I'd read aloud to my students though. There are some tough topics. However, it would be great for middle and high school, for sure.

Everyone in book club loved it too. 

It made me wonder what I would put in a time capsule to represent myself. This is going to take some thought! 

The author is from Edmonton too! Pam H sent the author a message saying, "This would make an AMAZING one act play! Let's collaborate!"

Favorite quotes:

p. 254 As you grow up, you're going to hear a lot of opinions about the right way to be Black. A lot of people will tell you to turn the other cheek or stay in our lane or just be quiet, stay in the neighborhood where everyone looks like you. But you deserve a world where the way you're treated is based on your character and not your  skin color. And you're allowed to fight for that world; you're allowed to make waves.

...if I'm being honest with you, Grit, I'm tired. I'm tired of the way we've been treated in Pineview. I'm tired of the odd looks and the suspicion and the disrespect. I'm even more tired of turning on the news and seeing the way Black people are treated everywhere. I'm tired of making a political statement just by existing, just by being black. And I think that's okay. Tired is okay. I don't have to Make A Statement every minute of every day. I can love myself and love my family and be a human and that's enough. 

p. 293 I nod, because I will do anything for him. Becaause he is my favorite person in the universe. Because if fathers  can be friends, he is mine, and even if they can't, he is mind.

p. 294 on losing someone through death:

....I'll always be one of you, but I can't be here the way I want to be. Remember what I s aid that day when we looked at the stars? People get closer or farther away, so you have to be strong and wonderful and wise and silly and everything you are without me. You have to be that Statgirl. That's what will make me happiest of all.

I wiped my nose on the sleeve of my dress.

p. 305 Now, Mom says something I don't expect. "I'm more than just sad. I'm determined. I'm resilient. I'm angry too. Angry as heck that someone would hurt your afther for such a stupid reason or for absolutely no reason at all. Because he never thought we belonged there, so of course we were in his house. I'm angry that whatever happens to the man who did this will not be nearly as bad as what has happened to us. I'm not going to tell yo uthat it will get any less painful or any less hard, but we will get through it.

p. 307....she whispers, "You don't have to be strong, baby. We'll do it weak. We'll limp and hurt and take everything one day at a time....

Setting
Neighborhood called Pineview - the "nice" part of Elderton (p. 7)

Characters

Mom (Bim)

Dad (Jar p. 131)

Lo (little sister)

Baby Z (baby due in  months)

Jeremiah Woods (Dad's BFF)

Mrs. Sorensen (neighbor who always just walks right in p. 14)

Kemi (cousin)

Dia (Chinese American friend)

Grandma (speaks Yoruba....Nigerian language)

Aunt Miriam - a feelings doctor (psychologist?)

Ty - Kemi's twin who died (p. 55)

Lois! (waitress at Patricia's diner) p. 90

Uncle Jere - surgeon

Uncle Steve

Jen - oldest cousin

Goodreads says:

A heart-wrenching middle grade debut about Kemi, an aspiring scientist who loves statistics and facts, as she navigates grief and loss at a moment when life as she knows it changes forever.

Eleven-year-old Kemi Carter loves scientific facts, specifically probability. It's how she understands the world and her place in it. Kemi knows her odds of being born were 1 in 5 .5 trillion, and that the odds of her having the best family ever were even lower. Yet somehow, Kemi lucked out.

But everything Kemi thought she knew changes when she sees an asteroid hover in the sky, casting a purple haze over her world. Amplus-68 has an 84. 7% chance of colliding with earth in four days, and with that collision, Kemi’s life as she knows it will end.

But over the course of the four days, even facts don’t feel true to Kemi anymore. The new town she moved to that was supposed to be “better for her family” isn’t very welcoming. And Amplus-68 is taking over her life, but others are still going to school and eating at their favorite diner like nothing has changed. Is Kemi the only one who feels like the world is ending?

With the days numbered, Kemi decides to put together a time capsule that will capture her family’s truth: how creative her mother is, how inquisitive her little sister can be, and how much Kemi's whole world revolves around her father. But no time capsule can change the truth behind all of it, that Kemi must face the most inevitable and hardest part of life: saying goodbye.

Snow Globe Family (S.D. Schindler)

 

Perfect for a snowy day like today! Today our world is like a snow globe! The little family and the big family live parallel lives. Good review about what parallel means! 

My class loved the little family. The picture are hilarious - especially when the snow globe is being shook and all the family goes flying. They also loved the small man in the tub getting flung out and the baby peering into the snow globe. He was HUGE!

Goodreads says:

"Oh, when will it snow again?" wonders the little family who lives in the snow globe. They long for a swirling snowstorm--if only someone in the big family would pick up the snow globe and give it a great big shake. Baby would love to. She alone notices the little family. She gazes longingly at their snowy little world, but the snow globe is up way too high for her to reach. Then, when a real snowstorm sends the big children outside sledding in the moonlight, Baby finds herself alone in the parlor. . . . Will the snow globe family at last get a chance to go sledding too?

As readers follow the parallel adventures of both families, big and little, they will take special pleasure in the miniature world of the snow globe, where the skating pond is the size of a shiny quarter and a snowman is no bigger than a sugar cube.

All Things Being Equal (John Mighton)

 

I'd really like to meet John Mighton one day or hear him speak in person to see if he is as effusive about teaching math in person as I perceive him to be from his books. This is the third book of his that I have read. I find his enthusiasm to be quite contagious. It seems weird to say, but I really enjoyed reading this math book!

I've been teaching JUMP for a few years and this was a really good refresher. I've been hearing people say some things lately (JUMP means you can JUMP from one lesson to another, or the practice and review book is something you can skip, if you want, for example) that were not ringing true for me. Reading this book, I feel like I'm back to the groundedness of JUMP. His philosophy really does fit well with our school's version of direct instruction. I especially appreciated his list of principles of effective instruction:

1. Begin a lesson with a short review of previous lessons.

2. Present new material in small steps with sufficient practice after each step.

3. Ask a large number of questions and check the responses of all students.

4. Provide models.

5. Guide student practice.

6. Check for understanding.

7. Obtain a high success rate.

8. Provide scaffolds for difficult tasks.

9. Require and monitor independent practice.

10. Engage students in weekly and monthly review.

Barak Rosenshine, "Principles of Instruction: Research-Based Strategies That All Teachers Should Know," American Educator 36, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 12.

I really like the idea of weekly and monthly reviews. I could do well to start that practice Barak Rosenshine suggests reviewing the previous week's work every Monday and the month's work the last Monday of the month. 

The Warlord's Puzzle (Virginia Walton Pilegard)

Amazing illustrations! Great way to introduce tangrams.

Goodreads says:

A young peasant boy convinces his poor but wise father to enter a contest to solve the warlordis puzzle, which is actually the original tangram
 

The End of Ignorance (John Mighton)

 

John Mighton is the creator of the JUMP program - a math program we use in our school. I have read other books he has written and am confident that he is on to a good thing. Reading this has made me want to re-dedicate myself to digging deeper into the lessons I teach each day in math. 

When I am reading this book, I'm always thinking of other areas of life I could apply these concepts...like Come Follow Me or seminary lessons. 

Goodreads says:

A revolutionary call for a new understanding of how people learn.

The End of Ignorance conceives of a world in which no child is left behind – a world based on the assumption that each child has the potential to be successful in every subject. John Mighton argues that by recognizing the barriers that we have experienced in our own educational development, by identifying the moment that we became disenchanted with a certain subject and forever closed ourselves off to it, we will be able to eliminate these same barriers from standing in the way of our children.

A passionate examination of our present education system, The End of Ignorance shows how we all can work together to reinvent the way that we are taught.

John Mighton, the author of The Myth of Ability, is the founder of JUMP Math, a system of learning based on the fostering of emergent intelligence. The program has proved so successful an entire class of Grade 3 students, including so-called slow learners, scored over 90% on a Grade 6 math test. A group of British children who had effectively been written off as too unruly responded so enthusiastically and had such impressive results using the JUMP method that the school board has adopted the program. Inspired by the work he has done with thousands of students, Mighton shows us why we must not underestimate how much ground can be covered one small step at a time, and challenges us to re-examine the assumptions underlying current educational theory. He pays attention to how kids pay attention, chronicles what captures their imaginations, and explains why their sense of self-confidence and ability to focus are as important to their academic success at school as the content of their lessons.

Favorite quotes:

p. 98 Adults think that repetition is tedious, so they fail to give children the practice they need to consolidate their understanding of skills and concepts. Adults think that familiar facts are boring, so they seldom ever give children enough time to explore those facts. Adults think that extending an obvious pattern is pointless, so they don't allow children to test that a pattern goes on forever, nor do they allow them to demonstrate their amazing ability to handle more and more complex variations on a simple theme. Adults rarely raise the bar for children very effectively or capture their attention in mathematics, because they don't know how to see the world through the eyes of children.

Two (Kathryn Otoshi)

So many puns and so much fun. We loved Zero and One. This is a great one too.

Goodreads says:

Two is best friends with One. Whenever they'd get the chance, they'd dance! She'd sing and snap. He'd tappity-tap. What a pair they made! At the end of each day, they'd always say, "ONE, TWO, I'll count on you, 'til the end, we'll be best friends." Until Three jumps in between them . . . Suddenly One only wants to play with Three. "ONE, THREE, odds we'll be!" they chant. Two feels left out. But what can she do? Another character-building counting book by award-winning author Kathryn Otoshi, Two is a powerful story of friendship, loss, letting go, and self-discovery.

7 Ate 9: The Untold Story (Tara Lazar)

There were so many puns in here that it was hard to stop and help my students appreciate them all - but I enjoyed them! This is a book we could read again and again and find something new to laugh at every time.


Goodreads says:

6 has a problem.

Everyone knows that 7 is always after him. Word on the street is that 7 ate 9. If that's true, 6's days are numbered. Lucky for him, Private I is on the case. But the facts just don't add up.

It's odd.

Will Private I put two and two together and solve the problem . . . or is 6 next in line to be subtracted?

Mind Boggling Numbers (Michael Rosen)

This one is pretty much just like How Many Guinea Pigs..., only picture book form. All the questions are answered by a character named Miss Mary Math.

Goodreads says:

How many glasses of lemonade would fit in an Olympic-sized swimming pool? Find the answers to all sorts of mind-boggling math questions in this fun, engaging book.

How Many Guinea Pigs Can Fit On a Plane

As soon as I saw the cover, I knew I would love this book. Math people everywhere will love it! I can totally see my students pouring over it and discussing it. So fun! ....and now I finally get what pi means!

It answers all sorts of great questions and even has super good math tricks. This one is a keeper!







Goodreads says:

How many bees does it take to make one jar of honey?

How many soccer balls would fit inside a hollow Earth?

How many pieces of gum would it take to stick you to a wall and keep you there?

Believe it or not, you can find out the answers to these questions yourself using math! Combining questions from real readers like you with surprising answers, How Many Guinea Pigs Can Fit on a Plane? proves that numbers can be fun and that math is power.

Alice in Pastaland (Alexandra Wright)

We read/watched this on tumblebooks. The animation was not quite as robust as other tumble books, but there were interesting things that happened along the way: especially numbers and equations that kept scrolling on the bottom of the page or side of the pages here and there. The different voices in the story were great too.

I'm not usually a fan of books with math concepts embedded in them, but this one was quite enjoyable! Unfortunately they were imperial (inches and feet) instead of metric. There was a cat that had numbers on his nametag and it was actually a math family diagram. Funny word play on characters like a snake, an adder that sits adding numbers all the time. There was even an introduction to Soduko! The play on the story of Alice in Wonderland is super cute. There was even good science information.

Goodreads summary:

Suppose that Alice had fallen into a wonderland where pasta was the only common denominator. In this clever parody of Lewis Carroll's classic tale, Alexandra Wright presents a mathematically aware Alice whose adventures are an appetizing combination of numbers, humor, and fun. With the Math Hatter dishing it up, the Adder using his noodle, and the Quantum Cat adding spice, arithmetic is full of pastabilities.

The Doorbell Rang (Pat Hutchins)

Would be a good story for introducing division! Could also be a simple book to use when working on predicting.

Goodreads summary:

Each ring of the doorbell brings more friends to share the delicious cookies Ma has made. This terrific and suspenseful read-aloud picture book about friendship, sharing, and cookies can also be used to introduce basic math concepts to young children. "Refreshing, enjoyable and unpredictable."—School Library Journal

Pat Hutchins is the celebrated creator of numerous award-winning books for children, including Rosie's Walk, Titch, andDon't Forget the Bacon! The Doorbell Rang was named a Notable Book for Children by the American Library Association.

Supports the Common Core State Standards

Grandfather Tang's Story

Great for teaching tangrams. Good connection between literature and math.

Goodreads summary:

Illus. in full color. "Drawing on a Chinese form of storytelling with seven
shapes cut from a square of paper, Tompert recounts the tale of two fox
fairies. Parker's pen-and-watercolor art adds drama, while the tangram insets
will motivate children to try their own versions. Ingenious."-- "Bulletin, 
Center for Children's Books."

Equal Schmequal

Great visuals for teaching the concept of equality.

Goodreads summary:

What does it mean to be equal? Mouse and her friends want to play tug-of-war but they can't figure out how to make teams that are equal. Nothing works until Mouse starts thinking mathematically. Wonderful illustrations capture Mouse and her animal friends from whiskers to tails.

The Myth of Ability (John Mighton)

I recently attended a JUMP math workshop and am very excited about the program. John Mighton is a fascinating person. The success rates from this program that they claim are astounding. I'm excited to teach it!

The author is fascinating as well. Who writes plays, gets a PhD in math, and starts a non-profit for teaching math to elementary students, and writes books on the side?

The premise behind this book is that we don't have a 'math gene' that makes us good at math. Everyone can learn it, if taught properly.

GoodReads Summary:

For decades teachers and parents have accepted the judgment that some students just aren’t good at math. John Mighton—the founder of a revolutionary math program designed to help failing math students—feels that not only is this wrong, but that it has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

A pioneering educator, Mighton realized several years ago that children were failing math because they had come to believe they were not good at it. Once students lost confidence in their math skills and fell behind, it was very difficult for them to catch up, particularly in the classroom. He knew this from experience, because he had once failed math himself.
Using the premise that anyone can learn math and anyone can teach it, Mighton’s unique teaching method isolates and describes concepts so clearly that students of all skill levels can understand them. Rather than fearing failure, students learn from and build on their own successes and gain the confidence and self-esteem they need to be inspired to learn. Mighton’s methods, set forth in The Myth of Ability and implemented in hundreds of Canadian schools, have had astonishing results: Not only have they helped children overcome their fear of math, but the resulting confidence has led to improved reading and motor skills as well.

The Myth of Ability will transform the way teachers and parents look at the teaching of mathematics and, by extension, the entire process of education.(

Great Estimations and Greater Estimations (Bruce Goldstone)

This was a book left by a teacher for other teachers to read. Such a cool math book! It's a great way to teach estimating. Fun!