BOOK REPORT mable mixes it up with math rhymes

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