UP TO MY KNEES!
Author: Grace Lin
Illustrator: Grace Lin
Number of pages: 14
Publisher: Charlesbridge (USA) First published in: 2020 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
Mei explores measurement as she plants a sunflower seed and watches it grow. The plant starts off as tall as her toe, but soon it's up to her knees, then her waist, then her shoulders. How tall will it get? The Storytelling Math series shows that all children can be mathematical thinkers. Each book includes ideas for exploring math at home with your children, developed in collaboration with math experts at STEM education nonprofit TERC Inc., under a grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation. |
“Days pass. There's a sprout! It's as tall as my toe. More water, more sun, more days. The plant is growing. It's as high as my knees!”
Official review by MathsThroughStories.org:
Grace Lin’s ‘Up To My Knees!’ (2020) is a part of Charlesbridge’s Storytelling Math series which promotes diversity (e.g., gender and ethnicity) in mathematical stories. This is a small 14-page board book which follows a young girl named Mei as she plants a seed and watches it grow. In the story, we see how Mei marks the growth of her sunflowers by comparing its height to her various body parts (e.g., her toes, her knees, her waist, etc.). The story is useful for exposing very young readers to mathematical language about measurement e.g., “as long as”, “as high as” and “taller than”. Ultimately, it helps very young children to see the different ways to measure something informally using non-standard units of measurement. The story has a very simple storyline which is arguably appropriate for the very young readers that the story is meant for. Similarly, the amount of text per page is age-appropriate too. One small observation is that we are not told the character’s name in the story. Her name is only revealed to us on the back cover. This is not a big issue at all, but it would have been nice to give some sense of identity to this young girl, particularly given that the book series is about diversity and identity. Like the other titles in the series, there are also a few activity ideas given at the back of the book. All in all, we recommend ‘Up To My Knees!’ to introduce the concept of non-standard units of measurement to children, aged 3+ years old. (Disclaimer: We received a complimentary inspection copy of this book from the publisher/author.)
Recommended age range:
3+ years old
Relevant mathematics topics:
Length & Distance; Measurement Comparison
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.
Grace Lin’s ‘Up To My Knees!’ (2020) is a part of Charlesbridge’s Storytelling Math series which promotes diversity (e.g., gender and ethnicity) in mathematical stories. This is a small 14-page board book which follows a young girl named Mei as she plants a seed and watches it grow. In the story, we see how Mei marks the growth of her sunflowers by comparing its height to her various body parts (e.g., her toes, her knees, her waist, etc.). The story is useful for exposing very young readers to mathematical language about measurement e.g., “as long as”, “as high as” and “taller than”. Ultimately, it helps very young children to see the different ways to measure something informally using non-standard units of measurement. The story has a very simple storyline which is arguably appropriate for the very young readers that the story is meant for. Similarly, the amount of text per page is age-appropriate too. One small observation is that we are not told the character’s name in the story. Her name is only revealed to us on the back cover. This is not a big issue at all, but it would have been nice to give some sense of identity to this young girl, particularly given that the book series is about diversity and identity. Like the other titles in the series, there are also a few activity ideas given at the back of the book. All in all, we recommend ‘Up To My Knees!’ to introduce the concept of non-standard units of measurement to children, aged 3+ years old. (Disclaimer: We received a complimentary inspection copy of this book from the publisher/author.)
Recommended age range:
3+ years old
Relevant mathematics topics:
Length & Distance; Measurement Comparison
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.