The Great Mathemachicken 2: Have a Slice Day
“In Have a Slice Day author Nancy Krulik has created a silly but memorable introduction to the concept of fractions. Charlie Alder’s lively illustrations add to the fun. Who knew chickens were so expressive?”
A greedy bully is loose in the chicken coop, and he’s chomping down all the chicken chow, leaving the rest of the chickens famished. The other chickens know who can solve their dilemma: Chirpy, the Great Mathemachicken! She saved them previously with her math and science skills, and now they trust her to solve the problem of Clucky. Unfortunately, Chirpy doesn’t see how her science and math skills can solve the problem of a greedy fellow chicken who kicks and scratches and pecks and clearly won’t respond to polite requests to share.
It seems an impossible dilemma, but Chirpy is no ordinary chicken, which an alert reader would spot almost immediately given that her friends call her the Great Mathemachicken. She slips away for a little thinking time and discovers a new friend. Quackers—a duck—is kind of like Chirpy because he’s a curious bird and kind of not because he’s, well, a duck. The pair head to where Chirpy might learn a thing or two in order to solve the problem of Clucky: school! And learn they do. Reading, tally marks, fractions, and pizza—who knew a day at school could teach them so much?
Lucky for the reader, the solution involves a little math, this time fractions. Over pizza scraps the two friends discover that “Fractions make things fair,” which leads to a chicken coop solution. They divide the feed and everyone gets the same amount. Everyone is happy except for Clucky. Fortunately for the other chickens, it helps that Clucky’s mom, Attila the Hen, has some persuasive powers of her own. No doubt it’s a good thing she didn’t show up 60 pages earlier or Chirpy would never have discovered fractions.
In Have a Slice Day author Nancy Krulik has created a silly but memorable introduction to the concept of fractions. Charlie Alder’s lively illustrations add to the fun. Who knew chickens were so expressive?
One small nit is that the book’s format, while super reader friendly with its large font and copious simple illustrations, appears to be targeted to the first months of first grade reading. But even with the short sentences, frequent paragraph breaks, and conversation-driven story, the reading level is actually high first grade to mid second grade because of its more complicated vocabulary.
But the driver of the more challenging vocabulary is also what drives the fun of the Great Mathemachicken series. The pages are filled with goofy wordplays (readers will be eggs-tra egg-cited about these) and jokes. They dance the funky chicken and even play chicken. At one point, Chirpy and Quackers ride together on top of the school bus just in time to hit a traffic light and silliness ensues.
“Quackers! Duck!” Chirpy shouted.
“Yes, I’m a duck,” answered Quackers.
“I mean duck down!”
“Yes, ducks have down. Down is what you call duck feathers.”
Okay, the jokes are pretty tired ones for adults, but kids will get the giggles, and that will keep them reading. And after all, who’s the book for?