Polly's Pen Pal (MathStart 3)
In this book, young New Yorker, Polly Romano, starts a pen-pal relationship with Ally, who lives in Montreal, Canada. Through their e-mails and written notes, the girls learn that they are a lot alike, but when Ally tells Polly how tall she is and how much she weighs, it's using the metric system. With the help of her father and a face-to-face visit to Montreal, Polly learns how to understand metric units and makes a new friend.
One unique and effective approach in the book is that Polly's father uses everyday items to explain metric units to Polly. For instance, he uses the length of a baseball bat to help her understand meters and the weight of the bat in kilograms to understand her own weight. A juice carton is used to show liters. When they get to Montreal, they follow directions to Ally's house using their own steps to measure the meters. I was a bit disappointed in that the only actual measurement in metrics was when Polly hops on the scale in Montreal to see how many kilograms she really weighs. I thought it would have been beneficial to do this actual measurement after each of the estimates the father gives.
The book is a lively, interactive way to get kids more interested in both reading and math as well as travel and geography. The illustrations by Remy Simard are very cartoon-modern and remind me of the show "Fairly Odd Parents" on Nickelodeon. This style should appeal to a wide age range of kids.
