The Great Divide

by Suzanne Slade (Author) Erin E Hunter (Illustrator)

The Great Divide
Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade
Many animals, like people, enjoy spending time with their friends and family. Many groups of animals have their own unique names. Did you know a group of gorillas is a called a band? And a bunch of billy goats is a tribe? Following in the footsteps of Multiply on the Fly (multiplication), What's New at the Zoo? (addition) and What's the Difference? (subtraction), this rhythmic, fun-to-read-aloud book introduces children to division as they conquer bands, tribes, mobs and more.
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Publishers Weekly

Slade uses an appealing formula to simultaneously teach readers about both animal collective nouns and division. Rhyming word problems followed by numerical equations introduce animal groups, including a "charm" of hummingbirds, a "crash" of rhinos, and a "tribe" of billy goats. Readers are encouraged to fill in the answers to each rhyme: "Nine hungry leopards/ waking up from sleep./ Three groups are on the prowl./ How many in each leap? 9 3 = ?" Hunter's naturalistic but warm paintings skillfully embody the two concepts, and appended materials include a matching game, a quiz about animal habitats, and an explanation of how division works. Ages 4-9. (Feb.)

Copyright 2012 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

School Library Journal

K-Gr 5--On each spread of this clever picture book, a rhyming verse introduces the collective noun for a particular type of animal and then asks readers to determine how many creatures would be in each "bale," "mob," etc., if the group were divided into smaller numbers. For example: "Sixteen shiny river toads, /in a sunny spot, /gather 'round four puddles./How many in each knot?" Hunter's colorful illustrations offer clues to the groupings, for the most part, though on a few pages the divisions are not clear enough to help young readers understand the concept. The book covers a wide variety of animals, from a charm of hummingbirds to a crash of rhinos. Back matter offers more activities relating to multiplication, division, and collective nouns, along with a mapping activity that would be highly engaging if the pictures of the animals on the map, needed to answer the questions, were large enough to see. Overall, though, this is a solid resource for math, science, and language-arts lessons.--Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MD

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

Slade uses an appealing formula to simultaneously teach readers about both animal collective nouns and division. Rhyming word problems followed by numerical equations introduce animal groups, including a -charm- of hummingbirds, a -crash- of rhinos, and a -tribe- of billy goats. - Publishers Weekly
Suzanne Slade
Suzanne Slade is the award-winning author of over one hundred books for children. Some of her recent titles include Friends for Freedom: The True Story of Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass, Climbing Lincoln's Steps (a Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Children and Paterson Prize for Books for Young People), The House That George Built (a Junior Library Guild Selection and Bank Street College of Education Best Book of the Year), and Booker T. Washington: Teacher, Speaker, and Leader. She lives in Illinois. Nicole Tadgell is the award-winning illustrator of Lucky Beans and In the Garden with Dr. Carver. She lives in Massachusetts.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781607185307
Lexile Measure
640
Guided Reading Level
L
Publisher
Arbordale Publishing
Publication date
February 10, 2012
Series
What's the Difference?
BISAC categories
JUV009030 - Juvenile Fiction | Concepts | Counting & Numbers
JUV002000 - Juvenile Fiction | Animals | General
Library of Congress categories
Animals
Infancy
Division

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