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My Even Day Review by Cindy West
By Doris Fisher and Dani SneedSylvan Dell Publishing
www.sylvandellpublishing.com
976 Houston Northcutt Blvd., Suite 3
Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464
877-958-2600
http://www.arbordalepublishing.com/
My Even Day is a story about a little boy who wakes up seeing everything in even numbers. The little boy's day is full of crazy sights as he goes to school on a school bus and then on a class field trip to the zoo. Mom has two heads, elephants have four trunks, lions have six wings--as you can probably tell, the book is fanciful and full of silly things that are sure to make a young child laugh.
The even numbers from two to ten are used many times throughout the book and typed in bold text so your child can spot the number words easily. Brightly colored illustrations encourage children to count what they see.
After the story, there are three pages of "Creative Mind" activities. The first is a number chart from 0-9 that shows pairs of pictures for even numbers and pictures without pairs for odd numbers. Leading questions are provided for mom or dad to ask about the chart. The second page teaches the square numbers from two through five, with teaching directions for the parent. And the third page encourages the child to think about pairs of things in real life, followed by four true/false math riddles. Parents are given permission by the authors to copy or download the "Creative Mind" activities so that the book pages can remain clean.
My children enjoyed the silliness but didn't relate entirely well to the story since the main character heads out the door with a full backpack to catch the waiting school bus. I can see how the repetitive use of the even numbers can encourage children to gain a better understanding of the concept, though. So, I suppose there is value in the book for a homeschooling family whose child needs to grasp the concept of even numbers.
Considering the public school aspect, I probably would not buy this book myself. If it were chock-full of ideas for teaching odd versus even numbers, I might consider it. However, I prefer literature that is more "living" and less silly, and so do my children. I do appreciate, though, the authors' willingness to create math literature. I find that tying literature into just about any subject helps a child to better grasp a concept.
