Children’s Literature
One way of supporting children’s mathematical understanding is making use of children’s literature. Children’s literature and texts can be used to help children see and experience mathematics in contextualized ways and are an instructional strategy used to connect mathematics to children’s lives, interests, place, culture, and community.
Below you will find a list of picture books that contain rich mathematical ideas. These engaging books create a shared experience and a context for exposing children to the math ideas shared in the grade level frameworks.
Early Number Concepts
- Count the Monkeys – Marc Barnett
- 10 Black Dots – Donald Crews
- How Many – Christopher Danielson
- Stack the Cats – Susie Ghahremani
- 12 Ways to Get to 11 – Eve Merriam
- Ten, Nine, Eight – Molly Bang
- Five Little Monkeys – Eileen Christelow
- Fish Eyes – Lois Ehlert
- This Jazz Man – Karen Ehrdhart
- Pete the Cat & His 4 Groovy Buttons – Eric Litwin
Large Number Concepts
- How Much is a Million? – David Schwartz
- A Million Dots – Andrew Clements
- Big Numbers – Edward Packard
- How Big is a Million? – Anna Milbourne
- How Many Jelly Beans – Yancey Labat
- Lifetime: The Amazing Numbers in Animal Lives – Lola Schaefer
- How Much, How Many, How Far, How Heavy, How Long, How Tall is 1000? – Helen Nolan
- Animals By the Numbers – Steve Jenkins
Counting Concepts
- Two Ways to Count to Ten – Ruby Dee
- Counting on Fall – Lizann Flatt
- How Many Snails – Paul Gigante Jr.
- One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab – April Pulley Sayre
- Five Creatures – Emily Jenkins
- Math Fables – Greg Tang
Counting by 10's, 100 Place Value
- Count and See – Tana Hoban
- 100 Ways to Get to 100 – Jerry Pallotta
- How Many Jelly Beans – Andrea Menotti
- Earth Day Hooray! – Stuart Murphy
- The King’s Commissioners – Cindy Neuschwander
Addition and Subtraction
- Quack and Count – Keith Baker
- Splash – Ann Jonas
- Arithmechicks Take Away – Anne Marie Stephens
- 100 Snowmen – Jen Arena
- Each Orange Had 8 Slices – Paul Giganti Jr.
- Pigeon Math – Asia Citro
- Bunny Money – Rosemary Wells
- Two of Everything – Lily Toy Hong
Patterning
- Beep Beep, Vroom Vroom – Stuart J. Murphy
- Pattern Bugs – Trudy Harris
- Pattern Fish – Trudy Harris
- Bracelets for Bina’s Brothers – Rajani LaRocca
- Spotty, Stripy, Swirly: What are Patterns? – Jane Brocket
- Pattern Breakers – Daniel Finkel
- Pitter Pattern – Joyce Hesselberth
- I See a Pattern Here – Bruce Goldstone
- Flow, Spin, Grow: Looking for Patterns in Nature – Patchen Barss(also available in French)
- A Pattern for Pepper – Julie Kraulis
- Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature – Sarah C. Campbell
Measurement, Size, Scale
- Measuring Penny – Loreen Leedy
- Just a Little Bit – Ann Tompert
- Balancing Act – Ellen Stoll Walsh
- Actual Size – Steve Jenkins
- What Will Fit? – Grace Lin
- Just How Long Can a Long String Be? – Keith Baker
- Too Small Tyson – JaNay Brown-Wood
- Great Estimations – Bruce Goldstone
- Spaghetti and Meatballs for All – Marilyn Burns
- What’s Your Angle, Pythagoras? – Julie Ellis
- One Very Big Bear – Alice Brière-Haquet
- I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean – Kevin Sherry
- How Big? – Jessica Gunderson
- How Long? – Jessica Gunderson
- How Long is a Whale? – Alison Limentani
- How Much Does a Ladybug Weigh? – Alison Limentani
Multiplication and Division
- Amanda Bean’s Amazing Dream – Liz Woodruff
- My Full Moon is Square – Elinor Pinczes
- One Hundred Hungry Ants – Elinor Pinczes
- Spaghetti and Meatballs for All – Marilyn Burns
- Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin – Pam Calvert
- The Multiplying Menace Divides – Pam Calvert
- 365 Penguins – Jean-Luc Fromental
- The Lion’s Share – Matthew McElligot
- Bean Thirteen – Matthew McElligot
Fraction, Decimals, and Percents
- Full House: An Invitation to Fractions – Dayle Dodds
- Little Numbers – Edward Packard
- Fractions in Disguise: A Math Adventure – Edward Einhorn
- Fraction Action – Loreen Leedy
- Fraction Fun – David Adler
- Fractions, Decimals, and Percents – David Adler
- Peace=Part=Portion: Fractions=Decimals=Percents – Scott Gifford
- Sir Cumference and the Fraction Fair – Cindy Neuschwander
- Sir Cumference and the First Round Table – Cindy Neuschwander
- Sir Cumference Gets Decima’s Point – Cindy Neuschwander
- If the World Were 100 People – Jackie McCann
- If the World Were a Village – David J. Smith
Algebraic Thinking
- Balancing Act – Ellen Stoll Walsh
- Balance the Birds – Susie Ghahremani
- One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab – April Pulley Sayre and Jeff Sayre
- Equal Shmequal – Virginia Kroll
- Pigeon Math – Asia Citro
- Two of Everything – Lily Toy Hong
- The King’s Chessboard – David Birch
Geometry, Shapes, Spatial Reasoning
- Shapes and Patterns in Nature – Stepanka Sekaninova. Jana Sedlackova, and Magdalena Konecna
- Shapes All Around – Kate Riggs and Laetitia Devernay
- When A Line Bends, A Shape Begins – Rhonda Gowler Greene
- Circle Under Berry – Carter Higgins
- The Shape of Things – Dayle Ann Dodds
- The Greedy Triangle – Marilyn Burns
- Triangles – David Adler
- Perfect Square – Michael Hall
- Which One Doesn’t Belong? – Christopher Danielson
- I See a Pattern Here – Bruce Goldstone