The Great Divide

Slade uses an appealing formula to simultaneously teach readers about both animal collective nouns and division. Rhyming word problems followed by numerical equations introduce animal groups, including a "charm" of hummingbirds, a "crash" of rhinos, and a "tribe" of billy goats. Readers are encouraged to fill in the answers to each rhyme: "Nine hungry leopards/ waking up from sleep./ Three groups are on the prowl./ How many in each leap? 9 3 = ?" Hunter's naturalistic but warm paintings skillfully embody the two concepts, and appended materials include a matching game, a quiz about animal habitats, and an explanation of how division works. Ages 4-9. (Feb.)

K-Gr 5--On each spread of this clever picture book, a rhyming verse introduces the collective noun for a particular type of animal and then asks readers to determine how many creatures would be in each "bale," "mob," etc., if the group were divided into smaller numbers. For example: "Sixteen shiny river toads, /in a sunny spot, /gather 'round four puddles./How many in each knot?" Hunter's colorful illustrations offer clues to the groupings, for the most part, though on a few pages the divisions are not clear enough to help young readers understand the concept. The book covers a wide variety of animals, from a charm of hummingbirds to a crash of rhinos. Back matter offers more activities relating to multiplication, division, and collective nouns, along with a mapping activity that would be highly engaging if the pictures of the animals on the map, needed to answer the questions, were large enough to see. Overall, though, this is a solid resource for math, science, and language-arts lessons.--Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MD