RUNNING AN ERRAND
Author: In-sook Kim
Illustrator: Do-gyeong Kim
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Number of pages: 28
Publisher: big & SMALL Publishing (Australia) First published in: Unknown Translated into English in: 2016 Format: Picturebook Is the mathematical focus explicit in the story? Yes Is this story part of a mathematics story series? Yes (TanTan Math Story) Preview and/or purchase this book on the Amazon websites: UK, USA, AUS, CAN Synopsis by the author/publisher
Luke the piglet loves to run errands. His mum asks him to go to the shop to buy her an egg. His errand to the shop turns into an errand for several neighbours! It seems everybody needs eggs today. Luke needs to do some addition when he gets to the shop. Does he get the right number of eggs? Does everyone get the eggs they need? |
“Mr. Bear said, "I'll need an egg too. Will you please get one for me?" Luke skipped happily along the road. "I'm running an errand to buy some eggs. I'm going to buy five eggs, because four plus one equals five."”
Official review by MathsThroughStories.org:
In-sook Kim’s ‘Running an Errand’ is part of the world’s largest mathematical story picture book series, called TanTan Math Story (70+ titles). The English translation of this original South Korean version was done in 2016. The story is about Luke, a young piglet, whose mum has asked him to buy an egg for her. Along his journey to the shop, his neighbours ask Luke to buy some eggs for them too. Will Luke be able to add up the total number of eggs that he now needs to buy correctly? The story is great in showing very young children how and when addition can be useful in a real world context. What is also quite useful is the inclusion of pictorial representations of an egg(s) being added onto an existing number of eggs each time a neighbour asks Luke to buy them eggs. That said, the positioning of these pictorial representations is confusing. For example, on one page, Luke is seen to be saying “I’m running an errand to buy eggs. I’m going to buy three eggs because one plus two is three.”, and then Granny Goat says to Luke in a separate sentence below the previous sentence: “Luke, please get me an egg too. I need an egg for a sandwich”. By now, Luke would need to buy four eggs in total (3 + 1). Yet, the pictorial representation below the sentence about Granny Goat is one egg plus two eggs equal three eggs, which is related to the first sentence when Luke speaks to himself, but not related to the second sentence about the additional egg needed by Granny Goat. This same confusing positioning of these pictorial representation is repeated over and over. Like most titles in this series, the book comes with a few mathematical word problems relating to the story to be solved at the end of the story. All in all, ‘Running an Errand’ is a useful story to introduce the concept of addition to children aged 4+ years old, but teachers and parents need to be aware of the small issue to do with the positioning of the pictorial representations.
Recommended age range:
4 years old +
Relevant mathematics topics:
Addition & Subtraction
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.
In-sook Kim’s ‘Running an Errand’ is part of the world’s largest mathematical story picture book series, called TanTan Math Story (70+ titles). The English translation of this original South Korean version was done in 2016. The story is about Luke, a young piglet, whose mum has asked him to buy an egg for her. Along his journey to the shop, his neighbours ask Luke to buy some eggs for them too. Will Luke be able to add up the total number of eggs that he now needs to buy correctly? The story is great in showing very young children how and when addition can be useful in a real world context. What is also quite useful is the inclusion of pictorial representations of an egg(s) being added onto an existing number of eggs each time a neighbour asks Luke to buy them eggs. That said, the positioning of these pictorial representations is confusing. For example, on one page, Luke is seen to be saying “I’m running an errand to buy eggs. I’m going to buy three eggs because one plus two is three.”, and then Granny Goat says to Luke in a separate sentence below the previous sentence: “Luke, please get me an egg too. I need an egg for a sandwich”. By now, Luke would need to buy four eggs in total (3 + 1). Yet, the pictorial representation below the sentence about Granny Goat is one egg plus two eggs equal three eggs, which is related to the first sentence when Luke speaks to himself, but not related to the second sentence about the additional egg needed by Granny Goat. This same confusing positioning of these pictorial representation is repeated over and over. Like most titles in this series, the book comes with a few mathematical word problems relating to the story to be solved at the end of the story. All in all, ‘Running an Errand’ is a useful story to introduce the concept of addition to children aged 4+ years old, but teachers and parents need to be aware of the small issue to do with the positioning of the pictorial representations.
Recommended age range:
4 years old +
Relevant mathematics topics:
Addition & Subtraction
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.
