This 218-page book provides activities that integrate mathematics with specific children's literature books. These activities are tied to the NCTM Standards and are geared toward teachers in grades K-6.

This book is designed for teachers of grades K-6 and those planning professional development opportunities for those teachers. The book was written to "recognize and apply the conventional wisdom that children learn by being actively involved in the learning process" (p. xiii). The authors believe that "by integrating math and literature, word problems can use familiar stories to allow students to address mathematical functions rather than struggle needlessly with unfamiliar vocabulary. Mathematical activities that are stimulated by literature inspire students to explore and investigate concepts…[and] foster the realization that math is all around us" (p. xiii).

Math Through Children's Literature is a valuable resource for teachers who are interested in integrating mathematics with children's literature. The book is organized according to the 1989 version of the NCTM Standards for the elementary level. Part I of the book gives a brief overview of mathematics education that touches on an historical perspective from the 1940's to the present, as well as other topics, such as the role of reading and the integration of mathematics into language arts and science. Part II provides an overview of each of the five process standards: problem solving, communication, reasoning, connections, and estimation.

Part III is organized into a series of chapters, each devoted to a different content standard. Because there is a considerable amount of overlap within the content standards, the authors have provided cross-referencing among these standards. Each chapter provides the reader with a description of the content standard and a list of vocabulary appropriate for the content area. This introduction is followed by a series of activities that focus on the content standard being addressed and integrate the mathematical content with a work of literature. Each activity begins with a bibliographic citation and description of the book that is to be integrated along with other books appropriate for substitution. The activities are described in detail, and many lessons include reproducible worksheets. Following each chapter is a lengthy bibliography of related books and references for both children and adults.

This book is clear and well organized. The activities are useful and correlated to both the NCTM Standards and appropriate grade level grouping, either grades K-3 or grades 4-6.

Although this book could be used by individual teachers wishing to begin to integrate literature into their mathematics classes or to increase the amount of integration, it may also be used for professional development of groups of teachers through workshops or study groups. Teachers could try some of the activities suggested with their students and report back to their peers regarding their successes and concerns. This sharing among teachers could greatly increase the impact of this book and could be done throughout a school year. The activities in the book are plentiful and rich enough in content that each of the chapters based on one of the content standards would be enough to sustain a professional development opportunity. This book could also be used as a resource for pre-service teachers, especially those in field placements.

One reviewer noted that users of this book should be aware that some of the titles that are referenced are out of print. The publisher has responded to this situation by checking each book in terms of its in-print status as of June, 1998, and listing the results.

A strength of this book is the fact that these activities are directly linked to the NCTM Standards, which helps teachers match the lessons to the mathematics curriculum at their grade levels. Since publication of this book, however, the NCTM has revised its standards documents into the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. The activities in the book are still appropriate in content and pedagogy, but teachers may need to rethink the organization of the activities within the standards when applying the new NCTM document.