Less Than Zero

1. Synopsis: I chose to do the book “Less Than Zero” by Stuart Murphy and Frank Remkiewicz. This children’s book tells the story of a penguin named Perry. He wants to buy an ice scooter, but doesn’t have the money for it. He needs 9 clams to buy one. He decides to do odd jobs in order to get the clams and keeps a graph of his earnings along the way. On the first day, his mom pays him 4 clams to trim the ice in front of his house. The next day his friend asks him to go to the circus, which costs 5 clams. He uses all of his 4 clams and owes his friend 1 clam. The next day he sees the ice cream truck and borrows another 2 clams from his friend. He was sad and decided to look around the house and finds 8 clams lying around. He is now up 5 clams because he paid back his friends. On a walk he reached into his pockets and realized they all fell out. He was still at the -3 mark in debt. The next day his neighbor told Perry that he found them all. He now had 5 clams again. The neighbor set out a deal that if Perry shoveled the ice he would get 4 clams. That equaled to 9! He passed by the ice cream truck and was tempted to buy something, but didn’t. He finally bought the scooter.
2. This book teaches children about graphs and negative numbers. The book graphs out the penguin’s progress with his clams, making the graph go up and down. It teaches them about graphs and how to graph things in the real world.
3. Why is literature an effective way to teach/learn a mathematical concept. Literature is an effective way to learn a mathematical concept because some kids learn in different ways. One child may understand things in a conceptual english way or a straight mathematical way. Also it is beneficial to apply math to real world settings, and children’s books do that.