Monster Math

by Anne Miranda, Polly Powell (Illustrator)

One little monster waits for the first birthday guest to arrive. . . . There’s a knock on the door, and now there are two! Now three! Now four! The guests keep arriving until fifty partying monsters wreak havoc and Monster Mom decides that enough is enough. The partygoers reluctantly depart until just that one little monster remains—after the best birthday party ever. Little ones can learn counting and basic math concepts while they’re laughing over the rollicking rhymes and hilarious, energetic illustrations.

Genres: Mathematics, Picture Books, Childrens, Monsters, Number, Counting, Juvenile

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

I am a freelance writer of books and educational materials for very young children. I'm represented by Ron Zollshan at Kirchoff/Wohlberg in Ct.

I have been published by: Addison-Wesley, Boyds Mill Press, Bradbury Press, Bricks (Korea) BridgeWater Books, Bt Bound, EP Dutton, Harcourt Brace & Company, Hampton-Brown, Heinemann (Fauntas & Pinnell) Holt, Houghton Mifflin, Hyperion, Joy Street Books, Laidlaw, Little Brown, LB Kids, Macmillan McGraw-Hill, McGraw Hill School Division, Modern Curriculum Press, Newbridge Educational Publishing, Nutmeg Media, Options Publishing, Perfection Learning, Scholastic, Scott Foresman, Silver Burdett and Ginn, Simon & Schuster, Steck-Vaughn, Troll Medallion, Turtle Books, Turtleback Books, The Rowland Reading Foundation, Time Life Books for Children, Voyager, and William H Sadlier Inc.

Reviews

[Andréa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Original rating: 🌟🌟
Revised rating, 10/15/18: 🌟🌟🌟

[Jonathan Dowell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Childhood favorite

[Sydney Klimas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Monster Math is a good informational book for the subject of Mathematics. I would suggest this book to the first grade read. This book is about a monster who has a birthday party - other monsters keep coming and going to this party. After awhile, there were too many monsters at this party, so the monster's mom kicks everyone out. The book counts up to 50 monsters who showed up at this birthday party. This is a good way to show counting to the student in a fun, visual way. I would make this book a read aloud in my classroom and I would read this book when I was introducing the concept of counting to my students. I would recommend this book to other teachers that were teaching around first grade, and if they were doing some math lessons. Literature is a great way to introduce a concept to a child, especially something that may be difficult to a young child, like counting.

[Rebecca Ashley Teague · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is about a monster that has a birthday party. Other monsters keep showing up and leaving the birthday party. The birthday party ends up getting out of control and the mother monster shoos all of the other monsters away. The book counts up to 50 monsters and then counts back down until one the birthday girl is left. I would use this book to teach and reinforce counting with younger grades. It could also be used to introduce simple addition and subtraction as students add or take away monsters from the party. The book contains rhyming throughout the story which will reinforce that literacy skill.

[Juliedrake05 · Rating 5 out of 5]

APA Citation:
Miranda, A. (1999). Monster Math. San Diego CA. Harcourt Brace & Company.

Category: Picture Book Soak

Brief Description.
This is a fun little counting book about a monster who is having a birthday party. The author uses different counting techniques, like skip counting, to count the guests as they arrive at the party. This book had really great colorful pictures with crazy monsters on every page. It is sure to keep kids interested throughout the book and lead into many different discussions about numbers and math. This is a great book and I would recommend it for anyone with a K-2 reader.

[Olivia Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book to introduce addition and subtraction. Teacher can go through book twice; the second time, going throught the addition of the monsters and the subtraction of the monsters.
Also the book teaches counting consecutively to ten, then jumps by tens to forty. It teaches the student the basic numbers where teacher can build upon the knowledge here.

It also rhymes. Teaches students rhyming families. students can go through and name the rhyming families.
The pictures correlate well with the book.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a good tool for children who need a bit of work counting by tens. It could also be used in a center that reinforces place value. I would offer this book in my classroom, but I don't know if I would highlight it only because the illustrations seem to be a little misleading. If children are attempting to count all the monsters (which, of course, should be encouraged), it can be surprisingly challenging as not all the monsters appear in full on the page and the adult monsters are not meant to be included in the total--can be tricky for little ones.

[Kathryn Sublett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Students will enjoy the grotesque ways of monsters as they build number sense by counting. The teacher can read the story and hide parts of the book to ask students what one more than the last party guests will be, and what one less party guest would be. Students in first grade could figure out how many more guests they would need to reach ten, twenty, thirty, forty, and fifty. This book would be appropriate for kindergarten and first grade.

[Lita · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for young students that are learning how to add and subtract. The little monster is having a party and all his friends are invited. The story starts out with adding ones (1+1, 2+2, etc). Then, it goes into the tens. Eventually, all the little monster's guests begin to leave and the story turns to subtraction to show how many monsters are leaving. This is a really cute book!

[Tiffany Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this story,the little monster is having a party and all of his friends are invited. The story starts out with adding ones. Then, it goes into the tens. Eventually, all the little monster's guests begin to leave and the story turns to subtraction to show how many monsters are leaving. This book could be used to teach counting, addition, and subtraction to students. Very cute book!

[Chanelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Monster Math is a cute book that has a lot of rhyming which can engage students, but also promotes addition and subtracting 10s. Every time the little monster opens his door to invite in his birthday guests more and more monsters come in his house in abundance. When it gets really crowded the monsters start to decrease. I like how at the end it ask How many monsters are left?

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a monster that is having a birthday party and more and more monsters keep showing up however the party must come to an end so all the monsters leave the birthday part. This is a good book about addition and subtraction. Also this book could be used to work with even and odd numbers and multiples of tens.

[Taylor McDiffett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this book because it would help children that are struggling with place value work on it more. It would also help students that are struggling counting by tens. However, I think the illustrations would be a little confusing for younger students because sometimes not all the monsters are visible or supposed to be counted.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute counting story that involves many, many monsters at a birthday party. With the rhyming narrative, it's a fun book to read aloud. And the colorful illustrations are entertaining; the monsters look very cute and not scary at all.

[Lindsey Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is great to help students begin counting up and at the end counting down. Students will enjoy counting the monsters in this well illustrated children's book. I would use this book in Kindergarten and first grade classrooms.

[Melinda Trotter · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is fun to read out loud and a cute way to introduce math. Illustrations of the monsters are colorful and imaginative. There are no scary monsters in this book. Since the plot is a birthday party, this would make a great birthday gift.

[MaKenzie Reiff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when a guest speaker spoke during one of my lecture classes. She was showing us books that teach math, and this book did that very well. I really like the concept of introducing a new math idea by reading a book similar to this one.

[Anne Miranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote it, so I love it. Polly Powell's illustrations are hysterically funny. This book has been translated into Korean. It's used in South Korea as part of the curriculum.

[Sandybear76]

Cute. I read it to second graders on my birthday. The students loved the pictures and the fast pace of the book.

[Gail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute pictures, nice opportunity to talk about addition and subtraction.

[Gina Starling · Rating 5 out of 5]

great book for basic math concepts and counting. Highly entertaining and funny for the children. K-2

[Shunta · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is about these little monsters. It rhymes nicely. It will be great to use when teaching students about adding and subtracting 10s.

[Betsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

First the monsters are arriving and students can add to see how many monsters there are. Then, as the monsters leave, students can subtract. Grades 1-3.

[Rindy Putry · Rating 5 out of 5]

it's good book....
and i realy like this book

[Morgan Wright]

This book incorporates addition and subtraction. This would be good for first grade to show the connection between addition and subtraction. Would be great for a fall book.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good counting book - with a lot of creative monsters.
I would have loved this book when I was my son's age (6). When I was in first grade, I was all about monsters.

[Madison LibraryBookFamily · Rating 4 out of 5]

A monster birthday party has you counting to ten, then skip counting on. The pictures are fun, the rhymes flow well, and the book can be used for simple math concepts.

[Cheyenne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Might be confusing for young children due to skipping numbers. Good illustrations.

[Bryanna Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very cute, and fun book. I recommend reading it to ages 4-6!

[Oona · Rating 5 out of 5]

had to read three times for my four year old; a fun book that incorporates counting.