The Great Divide, by Dayle Ann Dodds & illustrated by Tracy Mitchell

This book uses the cross-country race: The Great Divide (apparently is the tenth toughest race in the world) which is a grueling trek through parts of Canada, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. Dodds uses the race to talk about math. You might be thinking, "what! that's whack!" But I assure you , THE BOOK IS RAD.

Dodds tells a story of the race and its racers... At the starting line there are eighty racers on bikes ready to win. The bikers travel through the treacherous terrain, and keep being divided in half due to unfortold circumstances; a canyon, popped tires, then over a river, galloping on horses, flying through the sky and even more obstacles after that...

This is an interesting book that could be used to spark a discussion about division with children. The rhymes are rhythmic and keep the flow of the story exciting and engaging. The illustrations, done in acrylic on modeling paste, take advantage of the primary colors and entice the reader to stop and look. When looking closely into the illustrations, one can see some really cool visual involvement opportunities at play. Each illustration corresponds with the STORYLINE and the NUMBERS on the page, it takes some counting and searching, but it's a really neat feature in this particular book, and can be fun for kids who like counting and math. The way the author and illustrator work together to do interesting things with the text is also something to take note of in this children's book.

Among the Odds and Evens: A Tale of Adventure, by Priscilla Turner & illustrated by Whitney Turner

Hmmm... That's what I was thinking after having read, re-read, and contemplated the multiple meanings, messages, motivators for learning in this strange children's book. I really liked it, it was thought provoking and used very intellectual language and dialogue.

Turner tells a story about two travelers, X and Y who crash land in their "aerocycle" on the land of Wontoo which just happens to be populated by some very strange and different these beings - numbers! Upon closer study of the mysterious new peoples, X and Y find that there are two groups - odds and evens. Of course the story gets even stranger when the children of the Wontoois are brought into the "equation." You see, a couple of even numbers have even children, a couple of odds have even children, but it is ONLY when an even and an odd "hook-up" that odd kids are produced.

Wow! Weird.

I could analyze this book as a work in anthropology (a mirror to our own anthropological studies of those who are different, who are "the other"), as a book to introduce numbers or odds and evens, or perhaps X and Y are the variables?? I just don't know how to interpret it, but however it is done, the book is just plain CRAZY - crazy in a good way.

I'm not sure if younger children would be able to keep up with vocabulary and hidden meaning, but the illustrations and basic story line are engaging nonetheless. Actually, the illustrations are amazing, they tell a story all by themselves, I was lost for over an hour in these watercolor paintings by Whitney Turner (it would have been longer if I hadn't forced myself to stay on task. What creativity and imagination it must have taken to create this story of adventure!