SIR CUMFERENCE AND THE ISLE OF IMMETER
Author: Cindy Neuschwander
Illustrator: Wayne Geehan
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Number of pages: 31
Publisher: Charlesbridge Publishing (USA) First published in: 2006 Format: Picturebook Is the mathematical focus explicit in the story? Yes Is this story part of a mathematics story series? Yes (Sir Cumference and Charlesbridge's Math Adventure) Preview and/or purchase this book on the Amazon websites: UK, USA, AUS, CAN Synopsis by the author/publisher
When young Per visits her uncle Sir Cumference and his family, she learns how to play the game, "Inners and Edges." After she finds a clue linking the game to the mysterious castle on the island of Immeter, she must figure out how to find the perimeter and area of a circle to unlock the island's secret. |
“Per looked around the room. "Imagine that the floor is a giant orange slice that I've cut and stretched out. Halfway around is the same as the long side of the rectangle. So I need to measure the distance around half the tower."”
Official review by MathsThroughStories.org:
Cindy Neuschwander’s (2006) ‘Sir Cumference and the Isle of Immeter’ is the fifth title in the Sir Cumference series. The story follows a girl, named Per, and her cousin, Radius, in their adventure to explore a secret hidden in a castle. To unlock the secret, Per and Radius have to use their knowledge of area and perimeter to solve a series of puzzles (e.g. ‘The secret of Immeter is the name of the game. Open where inside and edges are the same’, where inside refers to the number of ‘inners’ [or squares] of a surface area). The story is packed with actions and puzzles, and is like a children’s and mathematical version of The Da Vinci Code. It does a great job in initially introducing a key distinction between area and perimeter of quadrilaterals in a fun way before stepping up a gear to look at how we can work out the surface area of a circle by dividing it into equal sectors and rearranging them to form a parallelogram. That said, the fact that parallelogram is referred to as ‘rectangle’ (on pp. 16-17) opens up a debate on whether it is accurate to do so as the parallelograms (on p. 17) do not have a right angle. (While all rectangles are parallelogram, not all parallelograms are rectangular). If we were to put this debate aside, ‘Sir Cumference and the Isle of Immeter’ is a great story picture book to introduce or reinforce the concept of area and perimeter of quadrilaterals to children aged 9+ years old, and area of circles to children aged 10+ years old. (Disclaimer: We received a complimentary inspection copy of this book from the publisher/author)
Recommended age range:
9+ years old
Relevant mathematics topics:
2D Shapes
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.
Cindy Neuschwander’s (2006) ‘Sir Cumference and the Isle of Immeter’ is the fifth title in the Sir Cumference series. The story follows a girl, named Per, and her cousin, Radius, in their adventure to explore a secret hidden in a castle. To unlock the secret, Per and Radius have to use their knowledge of area and perimeter to solve a series of puzzles (e.g. ‘The secret of Immeter is the name of the game. Open where inside and edges are the same’, where inside refers to the number of ‘inners’ [or squares] of a surface area). The story is packed with actions and puzzles, and is like a children’s and mathematical version of The Da Vinci Code. It does a great job in initially introducing a key distinction between area and perimeter of quadrilaterals in a fun way before stepping up a gear to look at how we can work out the surface area of a circle by dividing it into equal sectors and rearranging them to form a parallelogram. That said, the fact that parallelogram is referred to as ‘rectangle’ (on pp. 16-17) opens up a debate on whether it is accurate to do so as the parallelograms (on p. 17) do not have a right angle. (While all rectangles are parallelogram, not all parallelograms are rectangular). If we were to put this debate aside, ‘Sir Cumference and the Isle of Immeter’ is a great story picture book to introduce or reinforce the concept of area and perimeter of quadrilaterals to children aged 9+ years old, and area of circles to children aged 10+ years old. (Disclaimer: We received a complimentary inspection copy of this book from the publisher/author)
Recommended age range:
9+ years old
Relevant mathematics topics:
2D Shapes
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.
