CHARLIE PIECHART AND THE CASE OF THE MISSING PIZZA SLICE
Author: Eric Comstock and Marilyn Sadler
Illustrator: Eric Comstock
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Number of pages: 40
Publisher: HarperCollins (USA) First published in: 2015 Format: Picturebook Is the mathematical focus explicit in the story? Yes Is this story part of a mathematics story series? Yes (Charlie Piechart) Preview and/or purchase this book on the Amazon websites: UK, USA, AUS, IND, CAN Synopsis by the author/publisher
With a dinnertime mystery and 5 hungry suspects, Charlie Piechart makes fractions fun. Charlie Piechart has a piechart for a belly, and it’s a belly that’s perfect for showing fractions. In his first mystery, perfect for little math enthusiasts, it’s pizza night at the Piecharts’ house. How about veggies on top? “NO VEGGIES!” yell 4/6 of the pizza eaters. No one wants anchovies, either. They like Charlie’s idea best: pepperoni. But with 6 pizza eaters, 3 sizes of pizza on the delivery menu, and 2 slices allotted for each person, it is no surprise when there’s a mystery! A scream from Charlie’s sisters reveals the issue: 1 out of 12 slices has gone missing. So who did it? Charlie counts the suspects and questions each one (except Mom!). But could he be forgetting someone? |
“"YUCK, NO VEGGIES!" yelled 4/6 of the pizza eaters. And no one wanted anchovies.”
Official review by MathsThroughStories.org:
Eric Comstock and Marilyn Sadler’s ‘Charlie Piechart and the Case of the Missing Pizza Slice’ (2015), the first book in the Charlie Piechart Mystery series, is a lighthearted story about the protagonist, Charlie Piechart, who uses his detective skills to help find a missing pizza slice. On the surface, the story could be mistaken for being just another one of the so many mathematical story picture books out there that teach the concept of fraction through … wait for it ... the number of pizza slices to be shared. In fact, the story goes beyond it and does rather well in presenting several situations in which they can meaningfully be described using fractions. The book also does well in marrying eye-catching visual illustrations of fractions with symbolic representation of fractions. Overall, we highly recommend ‘Charlie Piechart and the Case of the Missing Pizza Slice’ to teachers and parents who want to either introduce or consolidate the concept of fractions children aged 6+ years old. (If you like the work of these two authors, you might also be interested in ‘Charlie Piechart and the Case of the Missing Hat’ and ‘Charlie Piechart and the Case of the Missing Dog’.)
Recommended age range:
6+ years old
Relevant mathematics topics:
Fraction
Possible teaching activities:
At MathsThroughStories.org, we believe that stories can be meaningfully incorporated in mathematics teaching in different ways. Thus, we are inviting you to share your experience of how you have used this story in your mathematics lesson with other members of the community. By sharing your experience with us, you will be added to our team of On-line Contributors here, where you can also find our submission guideline.
Eric Comstock and Marilyn Sadler’s ‘Charlie Piechart and the Case of the Missing Pizza Slice’ (2015), the first book in the Charlie Piechart Mystery series, is a lighthearted story about the protagonist, Charlie Piechart, who uses his detective skills to help find a missing pizza slice. On the surface, the story could be mistaken for being just another one of the so many mathematical story picture books out there that teach the concept of fraction through … wait for it ... the number of pizza slices to be shared. In fact, the story goes beyond it and does rather well in presenting several situations in which they can meaningfully be described using fractions. The book also does well in marrying eye-catching visual illustrations of fractions with symbolic representation of fractions. Overall, we highly recommend ‘Charlie Piechart and the Case of the Missing Pizza Slice’ to teachers and parents who want to either introduce or consolidate the concept of fractions children aged 6+ years old. (If you like the work of these two authors, you might also be interested in ‘Charlie Piechart and the Case of the Missing Hat’ and ‘Charlie Piechart and the Case of the Missing Dog’.)
Recommended age range:
6+ years old
Relevant mathematics topics:
Fraction
Possible teaching activities:
At MathsThroughStories.org, we believe that stories can be meaningfully incorporated in mathematics teaching in different ways. Thus, we are inviting you to share your experience of how you have used this story in your mathematics lesson with other members of the community. By sharing your experience with us, you will be added to our team of On-line Contributors here, where you can also find our submission guideline.
