Math can be a challenging — and often frustrating — subject for some kiddos. If your child needs a break from pencil and paper practice, it may be time to turn to storybooks. Books with math concepts woven into the storyline can help build skills in imaginative ways. They can also motivate kids who don’t like math to get more excited about it. Here are some of our favorites.
Lia & Luis: Who Has More?, by Ana Crespo
- Best for grades: Pre-K
- Math concepts: Measurement, counting, estimation
Math is all around us, and twins Lia and Luis find that out when they are arguing over who has more of their favorite snacks. This playful story lets readers follow along as they use math to pick the winner.
The Greedy Triangle, by Marilyn Burns
- Best for grades: Pre-K
- Math concepts: Shapes, angles
Bored of being a triangle, the triangle visits a shapeshifter to add another angle to his shape. After he is turned into a quadrilateral, he wants to keep trying out more shapes. From hexagon and pentagon to nonagon and decagon, kids will get a great introduction to shapes and see how they are found everywhere in the world.
Zero the Hero, by Joan Helub
- Best for grades: K-2
- Math concepts: Zero
All of Zero’s number friends underestimate his power. But Zero knows he is special, and when the other numbers get into trouble, he realizes he is the only one who can save the day!
Pigeon Math, by Asia Citro
- Best for grades: K-2
- Math concepts: Addition, subtraction
In this humorous book, a narrator attempts to tell a story about pigeons, but the number of birds keep changing. This picture book introduces addition and subtraction in a visual way that weaves in math, so kids don’t even realize they are learning.
How to Code A Sandcastle, by Josh Funk
- Best for grades: 1-2
- Math concepts: Counting in quantities
When surfboards and mischievous dogs get in the way of the sandcastle Pearl is building, she enlists the help of her robot, Pascal. Together, they use their coding skills to make a sandcastle kingdom. Kids who love this book will also love Funk’s “How to Code a Rollercoaster“.
Billions of Bricks, by Kurt Cyrus
- Best for grades: 1-2
- Math concepts: Counting in quantities
Kids are often fascinated with building, and this rhyming picture book takes them inside the life of a construction crew, building with bricks for a living. Billions of Bricks lets them visualize how the most impressive structures start with just one brick.
Sheep Won’t Sleep, by Judy Cox
- Best for grades: 1-3
- Math concepts: Addition, subtraction
There’s nothing that can get Clarissa to sleep! When she decides to count sheep, they suggest she try counting alpacas by two, then llamas by fives, and so on. Determined to get some peace and quiet, Clarissa must count back until all of the animals are gone!
A Second, a Minute, a Week with Days in It: A Book about Time, by Brian P. Cleary and Brian Gable
- Best for grades: 1-4
- Math concepts: Time
Even children who take up other math concepts with ease may struggle when learning to read time — and who can blame them? 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week; it’s not the easiest system for little minds to understand. Make this challenging lesson fun with these quirky math cats that help break down math concepts by showing them, rather than explaining them, to kids. The Math is CATegorical series also has books on money, fractions and more.
Mammoth Math: Everything You Need to Know About Numbers, by David Macaulay
- Best for grades: 2-5
- Math concepts: Real-life application of math fundamentals
“I just don’t get why I have to learn this.” Sound familiar? Kids who struggle with math — and even those who don’t — may find it easy to roll their eyes at their math homework if it feels like useless exercises on a page. Show them that math is everywhere around them, which means mastering their basics will help them succeed in so many ways other than in the classroom.
Ada Twist, Scientist, by Andrea Beaty
- Best for grades: 3-5
- Math concepts: Problem solving, patience
Part of the bestselling The Questioneers series (Rosie Revere, Engineer; Iggy Peck, Architect) Ada Twist, Scientist tells the tale of a very curious young scientist who conducts scientific experiments in the name of discovery.
A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars, by Seth Fishman
- Best for grades: 3-5
- Math concepts: Large numbers, size, distance
How to children grasp the concept of really large numbers? In this beautifully illustrated and interactive book, numbers are broken down into understandable examples, like stars or ants, to convey these enormous numbers.
Seeing Symmetry, by Loreen Leedy
- Best for grades: 3-5
- Math concepts: Symmetry
What do butterflies, a kite and the word “wow” all have in common? They all have symmetry. Seeing Symmetry provides an assortment of dozens of diverse and colorful examples to explain the concept of symmetry.
Seven Golden Rings: A Tale of Music and Math, by Rajani LaRocca
- Best for grades: 3-5
- Math concepts: Problem solving, division, binary numbers
Bhagat is a poor boy from ancient India who wants to secure his family’s prosperity by earning a place with the Rajah in his musical troop. As Bhagat travels with his family fortune (a single coin and a chain of seven golden rings), he’s faced with a mathematical puzzle as he tries to pay his lodging.
Secret Coders: Get With the Program, by Gene Luen Yang
- Best for grades: 6-8
- Math concepts: Coding
The first graphic novel in the Secret Coders series, young readers will get a nice introduction to coding as they follow Hooper and her friend Eni as they try to solve mysteries at their school. But Stately Academy is no normal school — it is a secret school that teaches coding.
Sir Cumference and the First Round Table, by Cindy Neuschwander
- Best for grades: 6-8
- Math concepts: Geometry, fractions
The first title in the Sir Cumferene Series, join Sir Cumference, Lady Di of Ameter and their son Radius for wordplay, puns and problem solving in this geometry-packed math adventure.
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Thank you so much Lori for the list of books for young kids for generating interest in Math. I was looking for this only.