Do The Math! Each Orange Had 8 Slices by Paul Giganti

It's time for a fresh look at a great concept book, Paul Giganti's Each Orange Had 8 Slices (Counting Books (Greenwillow Books)) a book which works as an eye-popping picture book and a top-notch way to teach counting, patterning, multiplying, and general mathematical thinking.

The text begins with a simple numerical statement:

On my way to the playground
I saw three red flowers.
Each red flower had
Six pretty petals.
Each petal had two tiny
Black bugs.

How many red flowers were there?
How many pretty petals were there?
How many tiny black bugs where there in all?

The text continues with waddling ducks, fat cows, and--picture books, the last page of which presents that traditional mathematical riddle-rhyme on which this book is based.

As I was going to St. Ives,
I met a man with seven wives.
Each wife had seven sacks;
Each sack had seven cats;
Each cat had seven kittens.
Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,
How many were going to St. Ives?
(Don't forget to count the man!)

Caldecott artist Donald Crews' bright abstract gouache illustrations work perfectly with Paul Giganti's text to provide a book with almost endless ways to have fun with number concepts, whether it is simple counting, an introduction to multiplication, or higher concepts. Each Orange Had 8 Slices (Counting Books (Greenwillow Books)) belongs on every kid's bookshelf, at home or school.