Up to My Knees!

by Grace Lin, Grace Lin (Illustrator)

Overview

Caldecott Honor winner Grace Lin celebrates math for every kid, everywhere!

Mei explores measurement as she plants a sunflower seed and watches it grow. The plant starts off as tall as her toe, but soon it's up to her knees, then her waist, then her shoulders. How tall will it get?

Storytelling Math celebrates children using math in their daily adventures as they play, build, and discover the world around them. Joyful stories and hands-on activities make it easy for kids and their grown-ups to explore everyday math together. Developed in collaboration with math experts at STEM education nonprofit TERC, under a grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781632899835
Publisher:	Charlesbridge
Publication date:	10/13/2020
Series:	Storytelling Math Series
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	16
Lexile:	AD340L (what's this?)
File size:	20 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	3 Months to 3 Years

About the Author

Grace Lin is the author and illustrator of more than twenty books for children, including the Newbery Honor Book Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Little, Brown), the Geisel Honor Book Ling and Ting: Not Exactly the Same! (Little, Brown), and The Ugly Vegetables. She is also the co-author and illustrator of Our Seasons. She lives in Florence, Massachusetts.

Editorial Reviews

♦ In board book form, Lin accomplishes that most difficult of tasks: creating engaging, accessible, age-level-appropriate, not-too-fussily illustrated stories that also teach something. In this case it’s math. Each entry homes in on a specific mathematical concept, while together providing a tour through the seasons — and a slice-of-life portrait of three friends, Olivia, Mei, and Manny. In the springtime-set Knees, Mei observes measurement and comparison as she cultivates a sunflower. Circle! Sphere! proves the mind-stretching fact that the children’s three different-shaped bubble wands produce the same-shaped bubble. Fit’s setting is a fall farmers’ market and illustrates Olivia’s spatial sense (and taste in ­produce). Wintry Marshmallow touches on division, both ­mathematical (how to split three marshmallows between two girls…) and behavioral (…without ruining the friendship). The illustrations are signature Lin — think The Ugly Vegetables (rev. 9/99) and the Ling and Ting books — with bold, saturated hues; thick black outlines; judicious use of frames; eye-pleasingly tidy details; and nothing extraneous. Brief “Exploring the Math” notes and “Try This!” suggestions, addressed to adults and written by an early math expert, are appended. All together, these diminutive math storybooks add up to a whole lot of fun.
—The Horn Book, starred review

From the Publisher

2020-09-29
A child uses a familiar standard to measure and compare the growth of a seed.

It is spring, and a child is in the garden planting a sunflower seed. Eventually, after adding dirt, water, sun, and time, the seed sprouts. Bit by bit the seed reaches toe height, then knees, waist, and shoulders. By summer, the plant is taller than the child and produces a giant sunflower. The backmatter explains that these types of experiences will help children understand measuring tools later on. A “Try This!” section offers a few suggestions to encourage further activities to help children grasp the concepts of size and measurement. Other books in the series are Circle! Sphere!(readers learn about shapes as a group of children blow bubbles); The Last Marshmallow (division and fractions are simply presented when two children with a cup of hot cocoa each must figure out how to share three marshmallows); and What Will Fit? (spatial sense is explored as a child at the farmers market decides what will fit best in the basket). All books have a brief explanation of the math concept presented and a concluding section with suggestions for further related activities. Multiaward-winning Lin presents the concepts in easy-to-understand short sentences paired with simple and attractive illustrations. The children depicted are Black and Asian.

Adults looking to engage little ones in early math concepts will not be disappointed. (Board book. 1-3)

Kirkus Reviews