Isobel Adds It Up

by Kristy Everington Narrated by Soneela Nankani

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

From debut author Kristy Everington and illustrating phenom AG Ford, Isobel Adds It Up is part Share Some Kindness, Bring Some Light, part Lyle, Lyle Crocodile and part Ada Twist, Scientist. You’ll fall in love with Isobel immediately and enjoy her journey as she solves both her math homework and the mystery of what’s making so much noise next door!

Math-loving kids, especially those who are often bothered by loud noises, will be happy there aren't any elephants around.

Isobel is a problem solver . . . addition, subtraction, multiplication, division! But trying to figure out who is causing all the noise next door is one problem she can't quite work out. Is it a marching band? A basketball team in the middle of a practice? Could it be a family of elephants?

Isobel doesn't know what to do about all the noise, but the solution just might come from the most unlikely place!

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

“An imaginative read-aloud recommended for teachers wanting to connect literacy and math and for public libraries looking to upgrade their collection of girl-empowering STEAM books.” –School Library Journal, starred review

"Sprawled across her bed, pencil poised, Isobel, a mathematically minded young Black girl, is eager to add, subtract, multiply, and divide her way to completing her homework assignment. In charming artwork, clouds of numbers, symbols, graphs, and equations billow from her busy brain and dance across the page in a swirl of arithematical bliss." —School Library Journal, starred review

"Not only is it refreshing to read a story about a little girl who loves math, but it is also exciting to read a book in which a child learns to establish boundaries in a way that is kind and fair. Ford illustrates Isobel’s reality in full color, with skewed angles to emphasize the disruption to her routines; both the equations she’s trying to work and her imagined scenes are represented as monochrome, white-space–filling cartoons. An adorable story about friendship and learning how to state your needs." —Kirkus Reviews

School Library Journal

★ 08/01/2021

PreS-Gr 3—Sprawled across her bed, pencil poised, Isobel, a mathematically minded young Black girl, is eager to add, subtract, multiply, and divide her way to completing her homework assignment. In charming artwork, clouds of numbers, symbols, graphs, and equations billow from her busy brain and dance across the page in a swirl of arithematical bliss. Then Isobel is distracted by the ruckus coming from her new neighbors. The equations in her head are abruptly replaced with theories of what is happening next door. Acrobats? Marching band? Conga line? Isobel worries that she will not be able to finish her assignment if the noisy neighbors can not quiet down. Engaging her problem-solving skills, Isobel whips up a batch of cookies and a note of plea for the neighbors. She unexpectedly receives a response from another girl, Bernadette, who is not anything like Isobel imagined. In her debut picture book, Everington delivers a story sure to inspire early elementary school students also beginning to learn basic math. VERDICT An imaginative read-aloud recommended for teachers wanting to connect literacy and math and for public libraries looking to upgrade their collection of girl-empowering STEAM books.—Emily Brush, Novi P.L., MI

Kirkus Reviews

2021-05-05
When the noise from next door threatens to keep quiet-loving Isobel from completing her math homework on time, she gets serious about resolving her noisy-neighbor situation.

Isobel, who presents as Black, listens to the loud thumps and bumps made by her new and noisy neighbors and imagines that there must be acrobats on the other side of the shared wall. As the noise continues, Isobel thinks that the neighbors must be a marching band or even a basketball team! After a failed attempt to get back at the neighbors by making some noise of her own, Isobel comes up with a new plan. She and her father bake peanut-butter cookies and deliver them with a note asking the new neighbors to be quiet. To her surprise, she receives a note back from her new neighbor, Bernadette—an elephant. Bernadette also has math homework due Monday, and it turns out the two make a winning pair of study partners. Not only is it refreshing to read a story about a little girl who loves math, but it is also exciting to read a book in which a child learns to establish boundaries in a way that is kind and fair. Ford illustrates Isobel’s reality in full color, with skewed angles to emphasize the disruption to her routines; both the equations she’s trying to work and her imagined scenes are represented as monochrome, white-space–filling cartoons.

An adorable story about friendship and learning how to state your needs. (Picture book. 4-7)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173139337
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	06/29/2021
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	Up to 4 Years

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