If You Were a Fraction

Description: If you were a fraction, you be part of a whole. You could be part of a pizza or part of pie. You could be part of an apple or part of a pear. What else could you be if you were a fraction? This colorful picture book describes fractions in a way that makes learning math fun!

Brief description: I always thought of books like a treasure chest, and the illustrations, like windows to look inside. My mother says, I was born with a pencil in hand...my left hand. I drew before I was able to speak. When I was eight years old, we moved into a new home, a big one. Our hobbies-room in this new home was so white that I had an idea. I decided to make it more colorful and I filled the walls with my characters. The ceiling was the only place that was not touched by my pencils. This was the beginning of my artist's freelance career. Since then, my funny characters have stayed with me everywhere, at grade school first, then at University in Rome where I studied Art and Literature. Now, the characters share the attic where I work, with me and my sweet black dog, Luna.

Review Quotes: Trisha Shaskan concentrates on basics in this book about fractions. She focuses on the definition of a fraction as a part of a whole and emphasizes familiar units of halves, thirds, fourths, and eighths in examples. Francesca Carabelli's delightful illustrations reinforce fractional notation with clear labels on fractional parts; however, the words numerator and denominator are neither defined nor used in the book, not even in the glossary. Concepts such as equivalent fractions and subdividing a fraction into smaller fractions are briefly mentioned, but Shaskan quickly returns to the fundamentals of fractional values. Hence, the book is a good resource for a very elementary treatment of the topic in the kindergarten or early first grade classroom, where it will entertain as well as instruct. The book is part of the "Math Fun" series and includes a glossary, an index, exercises, and additional resources.-- "Children's Literature Comprehensive Database"