Author: Michelle Markel
Illustrator: Doug Cushman
Type: Picture
Grade Level: K-3
Rating: 3 out of 5
Tyrannosaurus Math, a tyrannosaurus rex, finds math in everyday things all around him. He counts ornithomimus footprints, draws pictures of ankylosaurs to figure out how many legs he has eaten, and uses pie charts to evenly distribute hadrosaurs amongst his siblings.
The literary elements of time and place contribute to the story (Peterson & Eeds). If the story had taken place in modern times it would have been completely different. T-Math could have been stomping around a city and counting skyscrapers but since the story is during prehistoric times it gives it a historical and more realistic perspective.
This book takes something (dinosaurs) that a lot of students are interested in to help them understand and appreciate math better. In my classroom this book would for obvious reasons be used to work on math with my students. The back of the book lists the math skills and describes how T-Math used them. We could use the book to introduce skills or reinforce them with the examples. Since T-Math is finding and using math in his everyday life I could challenge my students to do the same.
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