Is your kiddo a math genius? Or do they hate this subject? This amazing collection of math books are great for both types.
At first glance, math and reading seem to be totally unrelated things. At school, professors teach subtraction and counting at different lessons.
In fact, unite counting and reading into one activity, and you will get real magic that will have a great influence on kids’ mental development. At the same time, kids learn math and promote literacy skills. How does that sound to you?
Why is it important to read books about math?
#1 – they visualize math concepts better;
#2 – a great option to teach math to those kids who prefer reading books;
#3 – a wonderful activity to do math with those kids who actually love it but lose interest in math books quickly.
Of course, not every book suits any age. You better know your kiddo. You are aware of what your child already knows, what they are studying now, and what you want them to teach soon.
In this guide, you will find what concepts of math each book gives. It will narrow down your choice and allow you to focus on the literature that you need at the current stage.
Seriously, the books in this list are versatile. Some of them are interesting math stories or riddles, and others are games that will raise the child’s interest in math considerably.
So, make yourself comfortable, get a cup of fragrant coffee, and enjoy reading about the most unusual books you’ve never read about before.
1. Counting Crocodile
Wow, such a catchy and poetic story with bright illustrations on every page.
The story revolves around a clever monkey who lives on an island and has only lemons to eat. Suddenly, she spikes a banana tree on an island across. And the only thing that separates the monkey from ripe delicious bananas is the river infested with crocodiles.
The brave monkey makes up a great plan in his head on how to get to the other side. Are you curious already?
Well, that is not a big deal for those who can count from one to ten and back again.
The story is short but will cheer everyone up. And you will like the lesson the story teaches at the end.
So, as you have guessed, the story introduces the math concept of counting to ten.
2. The Grapes Of Math
Count without counting!
At school, we are always taught to simply memorize tables and algorithms. Nowadays, it is proven that kids become numerate.
Modern approaches focus on the development of problem-solving skills. Kids learn that there are a lot of different ways to solve a simple arithmetic puzzle.
This “clever” book uses rhymes, riddles, visual hints to help the child find new ways to group objects and numbers to count super quickly. These patterns will teach your kiddo to visualize numbers and count many objects faster than counting each one separately.
The book holds the child’s attention and makes them focus on the task. Together with vibrant and inviting drawings, the book shares new creative techniques of counting.
3. Math Fables
Greg Tang’s books are splendid for kids of different age ranges. They are teaching not just counting but real math. “Math Fables” is one of his bestsellers.
The winsome sing-song tables explain the arithmetic concepts that are relevant even for the youngest learners. The author presents an entirely new way to teach the basics of addition and subtraction.
Here kids understand a number as an amount on the one side and as made up of other numbers on the other way. For example, the number 4 can be seen as 2+2 or 3+1.
The book itself is quite interactive. Beautiful illustrations accompany each page and correspond to each story about the numbers.
So, what does it teach exactly? – It teaches counting to ten in different ways.
4. Ten Apples Up On Top
This is a hilarious introduction to counting. This absolutely cutest book is fun, colorful, and easy to read. The words are simple and short so that kids can already read them on their own.
The story is about three friends who are trying to balance apples on their heads. When each of them practices enough and can easily walk with apples on their heads, they challenge the next level.
What other things can they do? Hold their hands together and walk with apples on their heads? Carry more than one apple on their heads? What? You will find many funny twists like these in the story.
But watch out! Something or someone is going to knock down the apples. What is going to happen? And how are friends going not to let the apples drop?
This amazing story engages kids reading indeed. And it teaches to count up to ten – and then all over again.
5. Sir Cumference and All the King’s Tens
This clever math adventure is amazing with all its fun, puns, wordplay, and problem-solving.
The plot itself is creative and encourages readers to think about how to solve the upcoming issue.
Here is what the story is about. A lovely royal family lives in a beautiful castle. And the King’s birthday is coming.
But the King is not in the mood to celebrate it. That is why Lady Di and her husband, Sir Cumference, decide to surprise their King and throw a birthday party for him.
The couple sends invitations to everyone in the countryside. But they do not expect that everyone will come.
On the day of celebration, so many citizens come to their palace that the guests barely fit in their castle. Lady Di and her husband manage to fix it so quickly that no one feels uncomfortable. Here is their strategy: they group the guests in ten and combine the groups into tens.
So, how does it help? And is the King really surprised? Read the story to find out the answers to these questions. We bet your kiddo will be excited about the further strategy.
The book develops the following math skills: counting to tens, number grouping, placing values.
6. Sir Cumference and the First Round Table
This story is a great teaching tool that makes arithmetics fun and accessible for everyone. And this time, it is a geometry adventure.
King Arthur is a perfect ruler who loves his people. But the time comes when he needs help with the biggest dilemma of his government.
It turns out that the neighboring kingdom is planning a war. Calling the bravest knights of the kingdom and attack is not the way out. A clever decision can save the peace between the kingdoms.
Lady Di of Ameter, Sir Cumference, and their son Radius enter to save the situation. Together, they discuss many decisions and stop on the best solution for everyone. What is the solution? And will they manage to save the friendship between peoples?
The story’s plot is interesting and moves fast enough so that it does not make kids bored at all. And it teaches geometry in a funny and memorable way.
The book covers not just circles and diameter, but some more pretty cool things:
- making a parallelogram;
- cutting rectangles and squares;
- octagons;
- ovals.
In short, the featured math concept here is geometry.
7. Fractals, Googols, and Other Mathematical Tales
It is one more amazing source for math lovers. This treasure consists of many stories and will work for kids of different age ranges. Even adults will find interesting sections for them.
Each story of the book is unique where the math comes to life. How does it work? – Main characters are numbers, dimensions, exponents, and the golden rectangle. Each of them has its own story described both in a serious and humorous way.
Stories such as “The number line that fell apart,” or “Leonhard, the magic turtle,” or “The parable of P” present mathematical ideas in a special entertaining way. Each tale explains a new math concept.
8. Fraction Fun
What would you choose: ½ of a tasty pizza or ¼ of a tasty pizza? Are you confused about these weird numbers? From now on, you will “play” with them. “Fraction Fun” explains the concept of fractions in such an easy way for kids.
Your kiddo will enjoy reading cool stories and learn what the top and the bottom number means, how they are called, and how to get them.
Children will be able to recognize and compare different fractions.
This interactive book presents pretty clear rules. Just follow them, and you will see that fraction is also a kind of entertainment.
9. Spaghetti and Meatballs For All
This book is a cool option for kids to learn new geometric concepts engagingly. The author uses humor and wit to hold children’s attention and draw them into thinking about area and perimeter.
This is a story about Mr. and Mrs. Comfort having a family reunion dinner. The couple prepares spaghetti to share peace and comfort with their neighbors and relatives.
They invite 32 people and organize eight tables for every four people. When guests arrive, they have a bit of a different point on arrangement of the seats.
The book shows real-life “math problem-solving.” Dividing, sharing, multiplying food. Also, there are nice shape recognitions for younger learners. The book depicts how to optimize sitting arrangement space (that is cool for the learning area and perimeter).
Seriously, with “Spaghetti and Meatballs For All,” you are going to have so much math fun.
The featured math concept of this story is geometry and counting.
10. What’s Your Angle, Pythagoras
This is a perfect combination of history, art, and math. The story is told amusingly and includes many historical and arithmetical facts. And the drawings are brilliant and appealing. They reflect historical context nicely.
The boy named Pythagoras comes to Alexandria to a wise builder who shows him secrets of architecture and introduces him to the right angles. The young boy discovers how to measure angles and learns so much about triangles. He finds out how the theorem works. And now Pythagoras knows how to solve any right-angle equation.
After reading this book, young minds will learn all the same and will keep asking, “what’s your angle?”
The book is great for advanced learners already and presents the concepts of geometry and algebra.
11. The Math Wiz
What a book! If you have a little math genius at home, get “The Math Wiz” for them, and they will shout with joy.
Marty is a math lover starting from kindergarten. Math is never too complicated for him. When he is in the third grade, he has physical training classes.
And that is when being a math wiz is not quite helpful. What should he do? Runaway? Train harder and harder? Well, any of these does not help.
But what if he finds a friend who is the same crazy about math as Marty is?! It sounds like a good decision.
So, do you agree with Marty that “all problems can be solved with math”? That will be a great discussion after reading the story.
And the kids will learn how to deal with some addition and multiplying problems.
12. Fractions, Decimals, and Percents
That is a great keep-around instruction book that unites three crucial aspects for children’s learning: bright drawings to hold their attention, fun to hold their interest, and easy interactive explanations to understand fractions, decimals, and percents.
When kids start reading the story, they become a part of the county fair, where they find fractions, decimals, and percentages. Taste a fraction of a huge pie or take a percent off the price of a teddy bear toy.
That is going to be cool. Kids will learn how the equivalent parts equal a whole, what fractions, decimals, and percents do, and how to work with them.
13. A Very Improbable Story
With “A Very Improbable Story,” you will understand that math is awesome.
Here is briefly what the story is about. One sunny morning, Ethan wakes up and feels uncomfortable, like there is something heavy on his head.
And that something is his talking cat named Odds. And Odds is not willing to get off Ethan’s head unless the boy wins the probability game.
As you understood, the story teaches probability and chance.
And you know, the probability that your kiddo will love this book is pretty high!
14. Go Figure!
“Go Figure!” is a cool math book not only for kids but for adults as well.
Numbers play a significant role in our existence. The universe consists of numbers. Computers work, and cars drive thanks to numbers. We understand space, time, and distance through numbers.
And this book is an in-depth look at all numbers from various perspectives. How did numbers appear? How did they develop? How are numbers used nowadays?
That is a brilliant, engaging math encyclopedia that will reveal all secrets about numbers, infinity, and shapes.
It is a must-have for teaching numbers.
15. Why Pi?
This one is a follow-up to “Go Figure!”. Here your kiddo will find answers to the biggest life questions. Yes, the book has scientific features and a tone of information, but it is easy to read and understand. It is totally NOT boring but keeps the children’s interest.
The book contains a chain of historical events of how people discovered mathematical principles behind the measurement. The reader has the adventure from ancient times up to nowadays. Kids will understand how all these theorems appeared and how math concepts came about.
Measurements. That is the main idea conveyed in the book.
16. Math Curse
Math is all around us. “You can think of almost everything as a math problem,” says the teacher. The next day these words come true for the main character of the story.
He wakes up late and has only 30 minutes to manage to catch the bus. He starts thinking if it is enough time to choose two clothing pieces out of 5 for a nice outfit.
Then he has so many other questions seeking the answer in his head. Why? What? And How? All that because the boy is a victim of a math curse.
Wow, what a story! Read it, and you will be impressed with the continuation.
17. 7 x 9 = Trouble
If your child struggles to learn the multiplication tables, this book is just the thing. The boy from the story, named Wilson, has to pass the quiz on math. He is constantly practicing memorizing the multiplication table.
He takes several tries, works hard to complete the test on time. And he manages to pass the quiz, but thanks to the rescue that has come from an unknown source. What is it? And how do things go on the test?
Struggling to memorize math is something that every student experiences. That is why your young learner will totally understand Wilson’s feelings and will find useful tips either.
These books demonstrate the everyday usefulness of math with interesting, child-friendly, and practical problem-solving. They shake the idea that math is boring stuff that you can only memorize. They prove that kids can UNDERSTAND math.
You know, it is always great to have an interesting book lying around that your kiddo can pick up and read some useful information, learn concepts of math that we use every single day.
And now, it is your turn to pick up the most suitable math book for your kids and have fun (we mean it!) together.
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