Children’s Literature Evaluation Form

Your Name: Thuy Trinh

Book Title: The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos
Author: Deborah Heiligman
Genre: Biography
Illustrator: LeUyen Pham
Publisher/Year: Roaring Brook /2013
Age group this book is intended for: 4-8 years old

Evaluate the Book for the following elements

Style and Language: (5 points)

Share 3-word choices that will support the intended age group and explain why.
How will the sentence length hold the intended age groups interest?
Share 1 sentence that will define the book for this age group.

Word choices:
 Genius: The main character is a mathematical genius with words express his
outstanding talent such as he could instantly calculate how many seconds a
person had lived based on birth date.
 Numbers: The story uses many words related to the names of numbers such as
negative numbers, prime numbers, and odd numbers to help children expand
their mathematical knowledge.
 Passion: because passion mathematic that Erdor had little time, or interest, in
learning anything else: how to cook, pay bills, do laundry, or even butter toast?

The sentences vary in length but they are of great interest to children of this age.
Short sentences describing the main character's personality and habits help children
easily grasp the meaning of the sentences and understand the events going on in his
life. Longer sentences describing how the main character operates in life help
children feel he is a genius.

This is a biography book giving children a much richer portrait than what is often seen
in a standard children's biography because although he is a mathematical genius, the
main character still has peculiarities such as he cannot take care of himself.
Character: With examples from the book, provide the following- (5 points)
Who is the main character?
How can the reader relate to the character?
Who are the supporting characters?

The main character: Paul Erdos

When reading this story, children also feel that their lives are somewhat similar to the
genius Paul Erdos. Because sometimes they don't do simple things like tie their shoes
on their own by themselves or they are so absorbed in something that they don't
even eat it themselves, so their parents have to help them.

The supporting character: Paul’s mother, Fräulein, and everyone Paul meets.

Plot: Summarize the major events of the story (6 points)

In The Boy Who Loved Math, Erdos's unconventional life from his early childhood
with numbers, he could instantly calculate how many seconds a person had lived
based on birth date, to his vagabond around the world with his academic.
“Magician from Budapest,” nomadic mathematician Paul Erdős. Paul hates rules, so
rules were a problem: “Paul told Mama he didn’t want to go to school anymore. Not
for 1 more day, for 0 days." Cared for by his mother and “Fräulein,” Paul cannot “cut
his meat and buttered his bread and got him dressed and tied his shoes.” But this
mundane details of daily life don’t do much for Paul, numbers are a different story.
Paul “thought about math whatever he was doing, wherever he was” until he grows
into one of the world’s renowned intellectuals.
Paul travels the world, lecturing and attending math meetings, all while others “did
his laundry and cooked his food and cut open his grapefruit and paid his bills.” In
addition, Erdos gave many monetary awards to the poor and set up prize money to
be given to those who answered unsolved math problems.

Setting: Explain the place and time of this book. (2 points)

Theme: What is the main message of this book? (2 points)

Setting:
 Place: where Paul is present such as his home, school or around the world
 Time: in the past
Theme: In The Boy Who Loved Math, the story not only shows how fun math can be
but also encourages people to work together to solve their problems.

Illustration: Analyze the book you selected with the following categories
Style (realism, surrealism, expressionism, impressionism, naïve, cartoon art)? (2
points)

Impressionism: which emphasizes light, movement, and color over or a sense of

proportion.
Light, movement, and color over of illustration always highlight the specific emotions
and personality of the characters in the story.

Media Choice (paints, oils watercolors, pencils, pen, charcoal, crayons, acrylic, chalk):
(2 points)

Media Choice: Paints, oils watercolor, pencils, pen.

Give 3 examples of how the illustration will hold a child’s attention.

(3 Points)

Children will feel very excited about this illustration because a boy
with a bright face is eager to reach for something far and high. With
this illustration, children will really want to discover what the boy
will do to reach his dream.

The colors of this illustration are very appealing to children

with the bright tones in the background, highlighting the image
of Paul Erdos, mother and son. When looking at this
illustration, children will think of their mother's love and that in
their mother's arms they can do what they want.
 With this illustration, children will feel like they sometimes
resemble Paul Erdos when they are with their mother. They
only care about what they want to do, other things they don't
want to learn.

Page design-placement of the illustrations: Describe how the placement of the

illustration will support children’s interest. (3)

The illustrations capture not only Erdos’s idiosyncrasies, but also cleverly incorporate
the world of math. With a simple text and beautiful illustrations, and with the gamut
from perfect interstitial pen-and-inks to lush watercolor paints that support children’s
interest when weaving equations, charts, diagrams, numbers, and theorems into
illustrations. This is a introduction to the world of math and a fascinating look at the
unique character traits that made Paul Erdos a great man.

Child Development Theory: Choose either Piaget, Erickson or Social Emotional to

describe the connection to the book Chose 1 only (5 points)

Piaget:
Name the stage: The Preoperational and the age: 2-7 years old.
During this stage children tend to be egocentric and struggle to see things from the
perspective of others and they continue to think very concretely about the world
around them.
For example, in the story, Paul Erdos is a mathematical genius who only cares about
numbers, so others have to help him with all his personal problems. He hates rules so
he also brings trouble to others.

1 would not recommend 2 average 3 highly recommended

Your rating of the book: 3

Why? This is an infinitely creative and entertaining book for children, Because not
only does the author highlight a fellow who took his passion for numbers and turned it
into a fulfilling and fun life.
 Book Extension Activity (25 points):
Must be the same story as your evaluation.
Your Name: Thuy Trinh

Book Title: The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos

Book Author: Deborah Heiligman LeUyen Pham (Illustrator)

Age range for this activity: 6-7 years old

Date: December 3, 2023

1. Infant/Toddler/Pre-K/CCSD K-2nd Grade Core Standard (5 points)

(List the actual standard that will support your activity)
 Social Studies. Demonstrate literacy skills through analysis and evaluation of primary
and secondary sources while at the same time synthesizing the material and engaging in
academic discourse.
 Understanding Mathematics. Mathematical understanding and procedural skill are
equally important, and both are assessable using mathematical tasks of sufficient
richness.
 Writing. With guidance and support from adults, focus on a topic, respond to questions
and suggestions from peers, and add details to strengthen writing as needed.

2. Objectives (What will children expect to learn?) (5 points)

 Students can be able to follow instructions.
 Students can be able to understand how to add numbers.
 Students can be able to use the objects to count numbers while adding.
 Students can be able to understand what addition is.

3. Materials and Equipment needed: (5 points)

 Video: The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul
Erdos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ibxwoBJR48
 Sheets of paper with math
 Pencils, calculation sticks

4. Teaching (What will you do?) (5 points)

 Ask student to sit on their chair at their table.
 Give each student a sheet of paper with activity.
 Ask student to grab pencils and calculation stick.
 Ask student to use the calculation sticks to count to find the sum of
addition.
 Ask student to write the number of sum in the square box.
5. Closure: (2 points)
 Collect the sheets of paper from students.
 Watch video: The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos.

6. List 3 additional books in this genre to extend the learning: (3 points)

 The Amazing Life of Benjamin Franklin by author James Giblin and illustrated by
Michael Dooling. 2006.
 The Secret World of Walter Anderson by author Hester Bass and illustrated by E. B.
Lewis. 2009.
 Stand Tall, Abe Lincoln by author Judith St. George and illustrated by Matt Faulkner.
2008.