Bedtime Countdown: Arithmechicks Take Away by Ann Marie Stephens

TEN CHICKS IN THE COOP WITH THEIR FRIEND MOUSE!MAMA SQUAWKS! "TIME TO HIT THE HAY!"

NO WAY!" THEY SAY!

Arithmechicks scatter for cover, with one hightailing it to conceal himself behind Mouse. Mama does the arithmetic. 10-1= 9. Mama catches three. 9-3=6. Four chicks hunker down, but Mama catches them. 6-4=2. The two chicks split up.

READY OR NOT HERE COMES MAMA!

But just as Mama corrals them all, one chick calls for a subtraction redaction! They scoot and scurry and conceal themselves again, in cubbies and cabinets--all except for 1. 10-1=9!

But Mama swoops down and wraps her feathery wings around that one wayward Chickie Little. It's a happy hug. Now the others are jealous.

WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF US?

Now that it's getting dark in the chicken coop, they are ready for a bedtime story and to hop quickly into their nesting boxes to count sheep--or whatever chicks count to fall asleep. Mama counts chicks: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 little nestling chicks snoozing--and one mouse, too.

The Arithmechicks are back, in Ann Marie Stephens' brand new mathematical exercise book, Arithmechicks Take Away: A Math Story (Boyd's Mill Press, 2020).

The youngest kids will love counting up the chicks as they scurry to hide in different combinations of numbers, while older arithmetickers will enjoy discovering the different patterns in which the clever chicks conceal themselves in the snug chicken coop. How many different ways are there to make a group of ten chicks? Let's count the ways, and in her appendix, author Stephens provides diagrams--a decomposer, a number line, a number bond, and a subtraction equation, and even that original calculator--ten fingers--all ways to come to ten. Artist Jia Liu individualizes each chick and alternately conceals and reveals their hiding places for counting fun for preschoolers and primary students.

Pair this one with its companion book, Arithmechicks Add Up: A Math Story. Kirkus Reviews' account says, "Feathery fun for the newly numerate. Take it away, Arithmechicks!"