The Best of Times
by Greg Tang
Ages 4-8
The author of The Grapes of Math and Math for All Seasons, Greg Tang, continues his crusade to make math make sense by taking on the biggest of math bugbears: the multiplication tables! Greg Tang's proven methods--giving kids tools rather than rules and
more memorization--pay off once again, as he uses rhymes and
commonsense tricks to walk through the multiplication tables from zero
to 10. For example, if you know how to multiply by two ("Two is very
fast and fun, quickly double and you're done. What's that you say, be
more precise? Okay then, just add it twice!"), then fours ("... please
just always double twice!") and eights ("... doubling three times
works just great!") should be a cinch. Some of the rhymes are even as
clever as Tang's tips: Over a panda pool game, he advises, "Nine is
faster to compute if at first you overshoot. Here's a very clever
tack, do 10 times and then subtract! What is 9 x 9? It's ten 9's minus
9.... What is 9 x 7? It's ten 7's minus 7."--Amazon.com
This book is so much fun to read because it helps you learn how to multiply with rhyming words. You also learn some tricks that allow you to multiply even faster. This book has great illustrations and a different animal for each times table. Plus, it gives you problems to try on your own! Do you know your multiplication facts?
Contributed by Kim, Mable campus
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