Mathematics + Poetry = A Dynamic Duo
Reviewed by Dr. Jerry Flack
Betsy Franco is a prolific author of more than 80 books for children, including several titles that combine mathematics and science with poetry. Priscilla Tey’s frolicsome illustrations superbly complement the text of Counting in Dog Years. Readers will have an amusing time visiting familiar mathematical functions and perhaps even learn a few new “sassy” math terms and tricks.
Twenty delightful poems are categorized in four categories: mathematics at home, in school, during school breaks (e.g., summer vacation), and in fun verses that examine the world at large and are labeled as math musings.
The opening poem, “Multiplying Mice,” comically weaves elementary mathematical problem solving such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division in a near household catastrophe when a young girl brings home a pair of mice from the local pet store. She quickly learns that mice have an astonishing doubling or multiplying characteristic. Her frazzled and harried mother subtracts the exponentially growing mice population down to ONE pet mouse that is appropriately named “Lucky.”
“Washing Machine Magic” explores a common and frustrating search in math musings. A young boy learns a lesson in fractions when he uses the family washing machine to launder his dirty socks. Following the wash cycle, the appliance yields three-fourths of the sixteen socks he first placed in it. (What is three-fourths of sixteen?) The lad learns a valuable lesson about socks and washing machines. If he switches to all white socks and half of them mysteriously disappear, he will still be left with matching pairs.
“Counting in Dog Years (Multiplying by Seven)” is one of the most joyous poems. Grandpa Dan is celebrating birthday number fifty-six. His beloved beagle has just turned eight. Their life years are equal. So, how come? How can that be? Poet Betsy Franco sets readers straight. A secret clue is shared. Dogs age faster than people. Each annual birthday they need to count or multiply their canine life years by seven. Hence, when Grandpa Dan is fifty-six his beloved beagle is also celebrating the same birthday. He just became eight years old. Seven years times eight beagle years also equals age fifty-six.
“Palindromes” is one of the most visually appealing schoolhouse verses. The classroom is number 313 and the clock on the wall reads 10.01. Bob, Nan, and Otto are friends who discover that palindromes work with numbers as well as words (written the same way forwards or backwards). “11×11 = 121 and “111×111 = 12321.” Recess occurs at NOON and that is when classmates Eve and Hannah practice their SOLOS during choir practice.
Some verses invite readers to interact with contemporary devices. “Calling Up Friends to Play” is a cell phone story problem. Five young friends are invited to discover integers that have been accidentally misplaced in the phone numbers of friends. Readers are challenged to use mathematics to come up with the missing numbers. (Answers are found on the book’s final page.)
A wide variety of mathematical processes are revealed in the delightful poems. In “Excavating the Lost and Found,” two young students prepare to graph the classroom results of sorting unclaimed student items that are separated into categories such as water bottles, hats, hoodie sweatshirts, and even a pajama top!
Franco’s concluding poem, “Math Makes Me Feel Safe,” brings Dog Years to a conclusive ode that celebrates the gift of arithmetic. Franco pays homage to diverse numerical operations that include tributes to siblings, scooters, Dad’s pancakes, daily drum practice, the days of the week, snowflakes, singing birds, and the stars at night.
While most terms in mathematics will be familiar to readers who love the subject matter, even gifted readers may be surprised to learn that tessellate, octahedron, and icosahedron are essentials to particular mathematical verses.
Priscilla Tey’s rollicking illustrations, primarily rendered in bold colors, depict surrealistic, robot-like machines that visually complement each verse’s mathematical story problem. Tey’s robots can fly; play musical instruments; activate a gramophone; sweep up bits and pieces of mechanical items, such as keys or nuts and bolts; paint pictures; or even imitate flying fish. Mechanical insects are spectators in “Our First Official Bug Race,” a short poem about a speed contest among a snail, black beetle, caterpillar and potato bug (rolled up into a ball). The human characters are refreshingly diverse in age, race, gender, and ethnicity.
Home and School Activities
Counting Verses
Several model poems involve counting. Haiku poetry has a long and detailed provenance, but the best known form among today’s youth is a three-line verse form that totals seventeen syllables. There are five syllables in the first line, seven in the second line, and five again in the final line. Haiku is typically written about nature, but as Betsy Franco ably demonstrates in Counting in Dog Years, numbers and poetry can address infinite subject matter. Encourage young poets to “count” a haiku poem about “Spring.”
Budding leaves on trees,
Birds singing, flowers blooming,
A new year begins.
A diamante poem is created with seven lines that visually form a diamond shape. The pattern and one example follow.
Line 1: One word (subject noun)
Line 2: Two words (adjectives)
Line 3: Three words (participles)
Line 4: Four words (nouns related to the subject)
Line 5: Three words (participles)
Line 6: Two words (adjectives)
Line 7: One word (often related to the title word)
Kitten
Fluffy, playful
Pouncing, rolling, jumping
Whiskers, fur, eyes, claws
Growing, stretching, stalking
Bold, hungry
Cat
Encourage young poets to search the Internet for additional poetry formats such as the cinquain that make use of number patterns central to the verse composition.
Brainstorming Math and Poetry
Challenge young mathematicians to choose a number such as fifteen. How many math problems can they generate that arrive with their chosen number as the correct solution? Examples might include 5×3 = 15; 3×3 + 6 = 15; 60 – 45 = 15. Once participating brainiacs exhaust the countless math ways to arrive at the answer of fifteen, their second challenge is to create a poem about their own chosen and omnipresent number.
Graph Phenomenal Migrations
Betsy Franco’s poem, “Excavating the Lost and Found,” features two middle-grade students who are preparing to graph the names of misplaced items in a single classroom. Challenge students to greatly expand their horizons. Research another subject such as animal migrations. Urge students to search print and online resources to discover at least five phenomenal migratory creatures of Earth’s lands, seas, and skies. Monarch Butterflies, Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds, Humpback Whales, Caribou, and Atlantic Sturgeon are just some creatures that migrate thousands of miles. Once students have lists of incredible migratory species, direct them to create a bar graph of at least five migratory creatures and the relative distances they travel. Some of these super travelers are unusually beautiful. Once their illustrated graphs are completed, encourage young mathematical poets to compose a verse tribute or a math story problem that serves as an ode to one particular migratory traveler.
Be A Verse Winner
Inform students that the ambitious publisher of Counting in Dog Years has invited students to create a twenty-first mathematical poem that will appear in the second edition of Betsy Franco’s remarkable book. Invite students to compose an original poem about themselves that describes their gifts, interests, and personalities. Their poems should include numbers and mathematical problems or content. Students can find many verse forms such as free verse, blank verse, and couplets with online searches. Young readers can also search the Internet for definitions, templates, and examples of the very popular “I Am” autobiographical verse. Young math poets can discover tools that poets like to use such as rhyming dictionaries. A student who lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan can find dozens of words that rhyme with the name of her hometown: rendezvous, bugaboo, impromptu, curfew, taboo, and even horseshoe. Her name and pets also can rhyme. Her personal number poem might begin as follows:
My name is Mary Lou.
I was born in Kalamazoo.
I have one very talented cockatoo.
And our city zoo has eight kangaroo(s).
Soccer is my very favorite sport.
Twelve is the number of our cohort.
We were six and one at the latest report.
Our next match is at my favorite lake port.
What does our win-loss percent
in numbers ably represent?
We have a special upcoming event,
And another victory is our intent.
Twenty students make up my math class.
We are headed for the museum en masse.
………..???????
Franco, Betsy. Counting in Dog Years and Other Sassy Math Poems. Illus. by Priscilla Tey. Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press, 2022.
