In elementary school, math word problems were the bane of my existence. I could crunch numbers with ease, but word problems were tricky because of the logical sorting you have to do to arrive at an equation: Establishing what’s known and what’s unknown and the relationship between them was not easy for me. Some word problems tell a story where events are out of order. You have to re-order them first to grasp what was there at the start, what changes, and what is missing. Some word problems use tricks like: A crocodile is 7 feet long, and that’s 3 times shorter than a snake! How long is the snake? In 3rd grade, that word ’shorter’ tricked me into division instead of multiplication every single time. This reasoning that turns a word problem into an equation was always the hardest part for me...not the calculations, but the logical part. As a grownup, looking back, I could hardly understand why I was so lost around word problems. But then, seeing my 7-year-old son (currently in 3rd grade) lose track now and then while trying to solve them, I realized that it would be helpful for him to start from the very beginning, from the simplest 1st grade word problems, and strengthen his grasp of the logic: What are we looking for? For the whole, or for the missing part? How to find the missing part if you know the whole?... and so on. This book is a ’guided tour’ of the major types of elementary school curriculum word problems, from a + b = ? to multiplication and division - covering material typically taught in Grades 1 through 3. By genre, it’s not ’fun math.’ Rather, it’s an entertaining and colorful tutoring aid for kids, aimed at brushing up their understanding of how to solve word problems. The reading level of the book is about 2nd grade - independent reading (or reading with the parent), simple vocabulary, short paragraphs, lots and lots of pictures. I divide word problems into ’houses’: Problems of the same type live together. We visit each house, and first solve a couple word problems together, step-by-step. I explain what is special about each word problem type, and warn of any potential tricks. Then I offer 2 or 3 word problems to be solved by the reader. The answers are at the back of the book. To add a bit of challenge, humor and excitement, every few pages I invite the reader to the House of Tricks - inhabited by trick word problems. I also offer a few puzzles, logical brain-teasers, and, finally, we explore why some numbers, such as 3, or 7, or 9 were believed to be magical in the ancient world. One other thing that bothers me about math word problems, is how boring and unimaginative their stories are. It’s always some kids selling T-shirts, buying apples, swimming so many laps, or baking cupcakes. To break out of this mundane environment, I replaced all these boring characters with vampires, fairies, princesses, dragons, mummies, serpents, and occasional historical characters, from Cleopatra and Constantine the Great to Queen Elizabeth I. Oh, one more thing! White paper with endless rows of numbers depresses me. Just don’t tell my Dad who has co-authored this book with me. He is a mathematician and his idea of a great time is solving higher math equations for fun after dinner. He is OK if a math book looks like the Arctic landscape with a sprinkling of numbers, but I want color, pictures, and humor. So there you have it, The Star of the Seven Seas.
