A review by allen_h
Grandfather Tang's Story by Ann Tompert

4.0

This book contains a story within a story. Little Soo is sitting with her grandfather under a tree, and they each have a set of tangrams. The each make a fox out of their tangrams, and then the grandfather tells a story about the fox friends. In the story the foxes keep changing their forms into other animals, and they keep trying to outdo the other. The story becomes one of survival as the creatures try to eat each other, but in the end both of them return to their fox shapes and continue their friendship.

I like this book because it shows creativity utilizing a common math manipulative. It also ends well, and I like stories with happy endings.

This book could be used in math to introduce some common shapes. Students could also be encouraged to use tangrams and their imaginations to create different things. They could then write a story contains their creations.