Math for Smarty Pants

Book recommendation, this one comes from my dear friend Shona Spitfire! It’s Math for Smarty Pants, by Marilyn Burns. Shona is a longtime school teacher, she used it for many years with her fourth graders. It has the philosophy that everyone is a smarty pants, they just may not know it yet, and this book might help them see it and find the fun in math.

I got a copy from the library, and Wanda had a marathon session with it, occupied for hours. (Hyperfocus superpower, activate! 💥) It’s been more than a month, and I still often find her with her nose in it, calculator or protractor at her side. It’s taken zero prompting on my part, all I did was leave it on a table, and she & Marilyn Burns took it from there. Thank you, Shona!

It doesn’t have a target age range specified, but it’s one of those books that little kids might love to read for the stories and pictures, even if the math is beyond them, while much older kids could be engaged by the challenging and creative problems. Wanda’s currently doing 4th grade math work, and I suspect she’ll be returning to this book over at least a few years.

Naturally we bought our own copy, from Alibi Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/alibibookshop