Mice Mischief: Math Facts in Action by Caroline Stills (review)

Ten energetic mice wake up in the morning with playtime on their minds. First, though, there are some morning chores to be done, from making the bed and the breakfast, to washing up the dishes and hanging out the laundry. As might be expected, not all the mice are enamored of housework, and one by one they peel off to play, leaving an ever smaller corps of mice to finish up the work. Embedded in the mouse antics is a math lesson in regrouping, with a line of simple text that counts the participants in each activity and offers the equation that expresses it mathematically: “8 mice cook./ 2 mice juggle./ 8 + 2 = 10.” You can’t get much more direct than that. The mice are adorable—so adorable, in fact, that kids may find it hard to keep their minds on math. The miniature world, replete with a converted juice-can stove, a teacup sink, thread-spool furnishings, pencil mops, and a birthday-candle chandelier, is fascinating, and the frantic energy of the mice provides a recess-like disguise to a curriculum-based lesson. It may take a few passes through the pages before the audience can focus on the main event, but even if they never get the complete math message earnest adults wish to impart, they’ll enjoy the simple counting and the raucous romp.