Score with Soccer Math

November 1, 2013

Gr 3-5-Athletics-themed series are typically popular, but this one may struggle to find a following since question-and-answer exercises are its focus. The writing, although clear and full of accurate facts about the subjects, is not engaging. The visuals consist of mostly action shots of the sports; they're attractive, but some are small. Each book begins with an introduction followed by chapters that mix facts and statistics about the subject with math questions and answers. The last chapter describes a game, meet, or race, and tries to build excitement with close outcomes. For example, in Basketball, there's just three seconds left in a game and the score is 69-68; players James and Dylan both jump for the ball. "The final buzzer sounds, and the crowd roars!" Readers do not need to work the problems out since the answers immediately follows the questions, but the explanations are solid and could be helpful to struggling mathematicians who are interested in the featured sports.

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2014
Sports-specific word problems, including calculating batting averages, field goal percentages, and field dimensions, challenge third graders to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. In each book, the final problem evolves from a narrative woven throughout. Thanks to a clean layout, questions are clearly distinguished from answers, which helpfully explain the mathematics involved. Captioned photographs add interest to the textbooklike design. Math problem-solving tips are appended. Reading list, websites. Ind.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)