THIS PAGE

INTENTIONALLY
LEFT BLANK
 ne
To my sister, ABn.P.C.
—

Subtraction:
Taking one rom
f
number awaysulting
another, re n you
in less tha ith
started w
j M ILLBROOK P RESS / M INNEAPOLIS
 Subtraction
is an action
th at will make
your total less,

4
wh o p s
eth er sco
ice -cr eam
or h
ula ho ops
or in
ches fr om a dr ess.
5
Wh atever
you are counting,
it will take away a part,
 and leave you then
with not as much
as you had at the start.

7
 If 7 angry bulldogs
were barking at your door,

8
a kitten could
scare 3 away.

you ’d be left wit

h en h 4.
T

9
 And what if 13 hornets
had nested in your tree?

10
 f f,
z o
would j u s t buz
t h em
of
0
If 1

you’d th en hav
e on
l
y
3.

11
 Do you see what
subtraction does?

It ch anges th e amount,
12
so you’ll wind up with fewer
when you do your final count.
 “M inus” means to take away
some number from th e whole.

Like if you had

10 bowling pins
and grabbed a ball to roll,
14
 u k no cke d down
y o 8
s ay pin
t ’s fi r st ball th at y
e

s
h o
le

h t u th
it
w

rew
.
Then 2 would still be
standing ’cause
10
minus 8
is 2.
15
 Your second ball knocks
2 more down.
i d i t!
d
ou You’r e the he
Y

o!

16
Now all the pins are
down because
2
mi nus 2
is 0.
17
In this case, “is” means “equals,”
or “totals just the same.”
 Th at sign means
matching value
in a problem or a game.
19
 Like if you had 3 time-outs left
and somehow lost your shoe,

you
r co
ach would
h ave to c al l 1 ,
and
you’d be left with 2 .
20
 h at you started
as w wi
w th .
3
you subtracted 1.
h en
T

t w ou l d e qu al 2 m or e le f
Th a t
th e g a m e w a s do ne.
or e
bef
21
 If Jenn had 12 stuffed animals,
and she gave 2 to Sally,

22
th en 5 more
went to Marykate,
here’s how you’d do
the tally:
23
 12 . T a ke 2 away—
w ith
r t
S ta 12
minus 2
is 10.

24
Subtract the 5
for Marykate.

Th s 5 for Jenn
en t l e av e .
h at
25
Whenever we subtract things,
it can make us
or gla d ,
sad

depending on
whatever there
is less of— good or
bad.
26
 Like fewer school days
due to snow
and less time with
the dentist,

not as much discomfort since

th e doctor fixed your bent wrist.
27
 A smaller plate of vegetables,
a shorter li st of chores,
less time with your homework,

and not quite

as many
28 sno res.
 See!
The numbers move
toward 0
with a sh r inking
kind of action.

ss ibl e
po
An

da s i s
l l of th i
h a ve subtraction
because w e !
29
 So, wh at is subtraction?
Do you know?

30
Text copyright © 2006 by Brian P. Cleary
Illustrations copyright © 2006 by Millbrook Press, Inc.
All rights reserved. International copyright secured. No part of this book may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without
the prior written permission of Lerner Publishing Group, except for the inclusion
of brief quotations in an acknowledged review.
Millbrook Press, Inc.
A division of Lerner Publishing Group
241 First Avenue North
Minneapolis, MN 55401 U.S.A.

Website address: www.lernerbooks.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Cleary, Brian P., 1959–

The action of subtraction / by Brian P. Cleary ; illustrations by Brian Gable.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978–0–7613–9461–7 (lib. bdg. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0–7613–9461–3 (lib. bdg. : alk. paper)
1. Subtraction—Juvenile literature. 2. Counting-out rhymes—Juvenile
literature. I. Gable, Brian, 1949– ill. II. Title.
QA115.C54 2006
513.2’12—dc22 2005025881
Manufactured in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 6 – JR – 11 10 09 08 07 06

eISBN-10: 0-8225-7181-1
eISBN-13: 978-0-8225-7181-0