LOOK, GRANDMA! NI, ELISI!
Author: Art Coulson
Illustrator: Madelyn Goodnight
Number of pages: 28
Publisher: Charlesbridge (USA) First published in: 2021 Format: Picturebook Is the mathematical focus explicit in the story? Yes Is this story part of a mathematics story series? Yes (Storytelling Math) Preview and/or purchase this book on the Amazon websites: UK, USA, AUS, IND, CAN Synopsis by the author/publisher
Bo wants to find the perfect container to show off his traditional marbles for the Cherokee national Holiday. It needs to be just the right size: big enough to fit all the marbles, but not too big to fit in his family's booth at the festival for the Cherokee National Holiday. And it needs to look good! With his grandmother's help, Bo tries many containers until he finds just the right one. A playful exploration of volume and capacity featuring Native characters and a glossary of Cherokee words. |
“His grandmother was always telling him to put away his things. She had even made him a special basket to hold his fossil collection. It was shorter than the vase. And the bottom was smaller than the mat. Would it hold all the marbles?"Ni, Elisi!" he called. "This basket you made for me is just right!"”
Official review by MathsThroughStories.org:
Art Coulson’s ‘Look, Grandma! Ni, Elisi!’ (2021) is a part of Charlesbridge’s Storytelling Math series which promotes gender and ethnic diversity in mathematical stories. The story follows a young boy named Bo who wants to find a container big enough to hold all his decorated stone marbles to be displayed and sold at the Cherokee National Holiday festival, but also small enough to fit the remaining space on the table of his family’s family booth. Through trials and errors, Bo discovers that while some shallow containers are large enough to hold all his marbles, they are too big for the allocated space he has on the table. What might a container that is large enough to hold all his marbles but is also small enough to fit the small space look like? The author is so creative in blending together mathematics, purposeful everyday context and diversity in a meaningful way. There are so many follow-up activities that teachers and parents can do with their children once they have read the story, for example, the children can be asked to explore different containers that they can find in the classroom or at home (e.g., a shoe box, a small basket, etc.) and predict which one can hold more objects in it, and whether it is possible for a wider and shallower container to hold the same number of objects as a narrower and taller container. Like the other titles in the series, there are also a few mathematical teaching and learning activity ideas given at the back of the book. The page illustrations by Madelyn Goodnight are visually attractive and help young readers to clearly visualise the mathematical concept behind the story. We like that the story is told and illustrated by an author and an illustrator who share the same cultural heritage as the characters in the story. All in all, we highly recommend ‘Look, Grandma! Ni, Elisi!’ to introduce the concept of volume to children, aged 5+ years old. (Disclaimer: We received a complimentary inspection copy of this book from the publisher/author.)
Recommended age range:
5+ years old
Relevant mathematics topics:
Mass, Volume & Capacity
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.
Art Coulson’s ‘Look, Grandma! Ni, Elisi!’ (2021) is a part of Charlesbridge’s Storytelling Math series which promotes gender and ethnic diversity in mathematical stories. The story follows a young boy named Bo who wants to find a container big enough to hold all his decorated stone marbles to be displayed and sold at the Cherokee National Holiday festival, but also small enough to fit the remaining space on the table of his family’s family booth. Through trials and errors, Bo discovers that while some shallow containers are large enough to hold all his marbles, they are too big for the allocated space he has on the table. What might a container that is large enough to hold all his marbles but is also small enough to fit the small space look like? The author is so creative in blending together mathematics, purposeful everyday context and diversity in a meaningful way. There are so many follow-up activities that teachers and parents can do with their children once they have read the story, for example, the children can be asked to explore different containers that they can find in the classroom or at home (e.g., a shoe box, a small basket, etc.) and predict which one can hold more objects in it, and whether it is possible for a wider and shallower container to hold the same number of objects as a narrower and taller container. Like the other titles in the series, there are also a few mathematical teaching and learning activity ideas given at the back of the book. The page illustrations by Madelyn Goodnight are visually attractive and help young readers to clearly visualise the mathematical concept behind the story. We like that the story is told and illustrated by an author and an illustrator who share the same cultural heritage as the characters in the story. All in all, we highly recommend ‘Look, Grandma! Ni, Elisi!’ to introduce the concept of volume to children, aged 5+ years old. (Disclaimer: We received a complimentary inspection copy of this book from the publisher/author.)
Recommended age range:
5+ years old
Relevant mathematics topics:
Mass, Volume & Capacity
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.