Math Fables by Greg Tang-- Blog Post 3, Matthias Ng

Math Fables, Lessons That Count by Greg Tang and illustrated by Heather Cahoon. Tang’s book doesn’t have a continuous plot; instead, he uses each number to express a new story or virtue that would be deemed admirable. He uses animals to get his point across and to hook readers in by keeping them interested. Tang goes in chronological order as he goes from one to ten, using a new animal and life lesson for each number. For the number one, Tang starts with a spider waiting for a “dinner guest” while preaching the value of patience. Throughout the book, Tang uses Cahoon’s illustrations to supplement his lessons by showing the value of traits such as diligence, courage, perseverance, diligence and friendship. Other examples used combine puns with specific lessons. For example, Number nine is titled antics, while ants are used to tell the story and to promote the value of cooperation. Furthermore, for the number 8, crabs are used to illustrate the value of courage. Tang always starts off with the next number in sequential order and from there; he will tell a story by using that number. In the eighth section, there are eight crabs and one crab needs help in the water. Then, one brave crab goes into the water to help save the other crab. Eventually, all the crabs make it out of the water and once again all eight crabs are safe because of their friendship. Every section in the book follows the same format, which is why there is no sequential plot.

Throughout the book, many mathematical concepts we discussed are used; there are also concepts that are more basic. Tang utilizes combinations to add up numbers together, the book attempts to teach young children how to count. This can also be related to functions because functions can be added and subtracted, it also shows that specific inputs will get you an output it also highlights algebraic skills. For example with the crab story, Tang would use different combinations of how we can add to get the number eight or how we can subtract from the number 8. He would subtract one and get 7 crabs and a single crab or would divide them by two, to get two sets of four crabs. Cahoon used illustrations to supplement what Tang’s writing and Math Fables. The illustrations have parabolas and use shifts to show how an animal can move from one point of the page to another. For the section titled Gone With The Wind, a butterfly shifts down a branch in the same way it would shift along the X-axis if it were a function of a graph. Other mathematical concepts used by illustrations consist of symmetry and other forms of concavity and parabolas. The third section has illustrations of turtles and there are two turtles adjacent to each other that appear to be symmetric to each other across a vertical line. Additionally, in the sixth section, otters are seen jumping into the water and the water that splashes up has concavity to them as many look to be concave down and increasing.  

I think literature is vital to teaching mathematical concepts and even our textbooks can be considered literature because it uses text to help explain the concepts and examples set forth. Without the text, it would be much harder for us to learn the material. This is used as an example for how other books or forms of literature can be used as an aide to learn mathematical concepts. Clearly, textbooks have dry text, which can be hard to follow. In contrast, other forms of literature can be engaging and can draw readers in, in a more effective manner. Literature can creatively give students another point of view when learning a new concept. Some students may prefer a different method to solving problems or students may approach problems in a different way. With a different point of view, students can grasp the same material or concept in a way that is more conducive to them.