Description:
Amaze your friends! Lift the fiendish flaps! Launch the rocket! Work the candy machine! The invitations shouted on the cover of this marvelously outlandish pop-up book instantly let young readers know that this is no ordinary multiplication lesson. In the book's opening pages, readers learn that when they multiply any number by zero, the answer is always zero! To illustrate that point in a sillier manner, turn a wheel and watch numbers disappear into a black hole. The 4 times table is displayed as a ghoulish Halloween picnic: "Multiply each number by 4," drips vampire-boy Frederick Four, "and there will be 4 times as many foul things to eat!" What horrors does he reference? Three crunchy frogs leap to 12 crunchy frogs with the lift of a flap! Ten chocolate bellybuttons transform to 40! The 8 times table is brought to you by a pink pop-up octopus named Edina Eight. "Hello, darlings!" she exclaims. "I simply adore shoes, but I need 8 to go with each outfit. Pull the tab to multiply by 8 and to see how many shoes I need to go with my entire wardrobe." This wild ride continues all the way to 12 for the grand finale--a square multiplication table that shows the times tables up to 12, encased in a pull-out box that explodes with pop-up fireworks. This zany, dizzying book is certainly not meant to replace trusty flashcards and a good math teacher. But if kids are swimming in what they perceive to be humorless times tables, this maniacal mathematical pop-up book may be a welcome diversion. (Ages 9 and older) --Karin Snelson
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