BEARS MAKE THE BEST MATH BUDDIES

In this follow-up to Bears Make the Best Reading Buddies (2016),
Adelaide and her friendly bear are back to ace mathematics.

Dressed in a sweater patterned with
geometric shapes and arithmetical symbols, Bear is ready to tackle math
assignments. Although her class is working on first-grade addition and
subtraction, Adelaide makes far-reaching claims about Bear’s mathematical
prowess. She proceeds to detail ursine creatures’ varied skills, and the
brightly colored digital illustrations show Bear, with Adelaide’s help,
demonstrating these. From building a treehouse using complex measurements and
comparing a compass face to a watch face, they go on to simple geometry and
arithmetic. When Adelaide and her friend go berry picking, he shows her how to “sort
[the different fruits] into groups so they can analyze their haul and sum up
their rewards.” Real-world connections are further clarified in an ice cream
shop, when Bear and Adelaide get superduper cones and the tab is $12.45. (Too
bad it’s impossible for clever readers to use the price board to understand how
the cashier arrived at that total.) Adelaide’s statement that bears understand
that “math is everywhere” clinches it for Mrs. Fitz-Pea. Adelaide presents
white, Mrs. Fitz-Pea has brown skin, and the other students are diverse. While
it’s a swift survey, it effectively conveys the importance of math in everyday
life.