Geometry and Spatial Concepts

Suitability comments on Main Reader Page z = Our family's favorites

Newly Added July 2008:

The Warlord Series:

The Ancient Mystery of Tangrams Quarto Children's Books  2000  Geometry 500 Tangrams

The Boy with Square Eyes z, Snape, Juliet & Charles, 1988, Boy w/televisionitis sees in squares

A Cloak For The Dreamer, Aileen Friedman, Geometry woven into a wonderful story

Cyberchase z PBS show, hugely popular and valuable 30 minutes - ages 4 to 10 ish? Some fun but heavy duty math!

Eight Hands Round Ann Whitford Paul, geometric designs in quilts

The Goat in the Rug  z Blood, Charles & Link, Martin/Parker  1976   Geometry, patterns. Navajo weaving story

The Greedy Triangle z by Marilyn Burns, kids LOVE this story

GrandFather Tang's Story by Ann Tompert, Tangrams in a story

Harlequin  Charlip, Remy/Supree, Burton    Parts to whole   Beautiful illustrations, nice text

Hello Math Readers:  The Silly Story of Goldie Locks & the Three Squares Y Maccarone, Grace/Kennedy  L. 2  / Three Pigs, One Wolf, and Seven Magic Shapes (Hello Math, Level 3, G 1-2) Tangrams by Grace MacCarone

In Shadowland,  Anno, Mitsumasa 1988 Perspective, dimensions

MathStart Readers by Stuart Murphy:  Bigger, Better, Best! Area, L. 2; Captain Invincible and the Space Shapes Three dimensional shapes, L. 2; Let's Fly a Kite Symmetry, L. 2; Racing Around Perimeter, L. 2;

Mother, Mother, I Feel Sick, Send for the Doctor, Quick, Quick, Quick z by Remy Charlip, funny book, all illustrations are in shadow cutouts

My Full Moon is Square z Pinczes, Elinor J. - Intro to square numbers

Opt, An Illusionary Tale  Baum  Geometry, proportions, measurement, optical illusions

The Paper Crane z Molly Bang, Reading Rainbow, nice story based on origami

Paper John z Small, David1987 Origami, old-fashed fairy tale style story

Picture Pie 2 Ed Emberley - Drawing and stencil book, designs out of common geometric shapes

Quilt Counting by Lesa Cline-Ransome

The Patchwork Quilt by Valerie Flournoy

The Quiltmaker's Gift (quilt patterns, great Amazon reviews)  

Cindy Neuschwander Books: Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland  Story with geometry concepts, lots of plays on geo terms

Reflections z by Jonas, Ann, Beautiful artwork, concepts of symmetry and perspective

Sadako by Eleanor Coerr/ Ed Young, abbreviated / illustrated version of the novel, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, see reviews, story based on origami

The Seeing Stick by Jane Yolen, "soft" math, but ideas of profiles

The Shape of Things Y by Dayle Ann Dodds, younger book on geometric shapes

Shape Up! Fun with Triangles and Other Polygons David Adler

The Spider Weaver : A Legend Of Kente Cloth Margaret Musgrove, geometric patterns in nature and weaving, African folk tale

Squarehead  by Harriet Ziefert

Triangle, Square, Circle Y William Wegman, Young shape book but fun (guy with the dogs)

The Village of Round and Square Houses  Grifalconi, Ann

What Is It? zY Spin-about Book  Gardner, Beau  1989 Moveable parts, all my kids love this one, geometry

The Wing on a Flea, Y Ed Emberley,  Beautiful book

Who Took the Farmer's Hat? zY Nodset, Joan L./Siebel, Fritz  1963  Perception. Sweet story.

I Love Math, Young Math Series - These and other series books have lots of activities for geometry, see Multi-Concept Series pages - Particularly:

3D 2D 1D   Adler, David 1975 Geometry, measurement, volume/area. Very readable

Circles and Curves  Razzell, Arthur/Watts, KGO/Raskin, Ellen 1964 Geometry

The Ellipse   Charosh, Mannis/Kessler, Leonard1971 Geometry. Lots of activities

Shadow Geometry by Daphne Harwood Trivett

Straight Lines, Parallel Lines, Perpendicular Lines  Charosh, Mannis  1970 Geometry activities

Upper Elementary thru Middle School

Chapter books for older kids covering multiplication and division:

The Adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat z  Pappas, Theoni  1997  Math exploration

The Boy Who Reversed Himself  z Story about other dimensions

Flatland : A Romance of Many Dimensions  Edwin A. Abbott, long time classic  

Flatterland: Like Flatland, Only More So  Ian Stewart 

The I Hate Mathematics! Book z  Burns, Marilyn/Weston, Martha  1975  Genl math/math history. Classic

Math Smart Junior z  Lerner, Marcia Princeton Review, 1995 dumb name but great story math book for upper elem, my son read this repeatedly

Murderous Maths: Vicious Circles and other Savage Shapes (Geometry)

The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster

The Planiverse z   Dewdney, A.K.   1984  Computer contact with a 2D world (modern version of Flatland)   Fun book! - a little old for some in this group, but some will enjoy the computer / sci fi theme

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr, novel w/origami theme, see reviews, juvenile book but strong content

String, Straightedge and Shadow: The Story of Geometry z Diggins, Julia E./Bell, Corydon 1965 Geometry, math history. Classic back in print

Wooden Books z :  Gorgeous illustrations!

   Li: Dynamic Form in Nature, Wade, David   Math in Nature

   Platonic & Archimedean Solids, Sutton, Daud

   Sacred Geometry, Lundy, Miranda