I have yet to read a picture book focused on math.  There are many great STEM books, science books, fairy stories, books about art, etc but I can’t think of a book focused solely on math.  Thanks to Miguel Tanco and Tundra Books, Count on Me hits shelves this spring.

In the story a little girl has tried all of the different activities offered at her school.  She has tried sports and arts endeavours but nothing she tries is right for her, except for math.  Her mind sees math all around her, in nature, on the playground, even at the dinner table. Math is all around and it’s how she sees the world which can be hard to understand.

It’s so refreshing to have a story for all those readers who see the world a little differently.  It’s so important for all readers to see themselves and their passions reflected back to them and to know they are not alone in their love for math.  The illustrations are so wonderful with a muted color palette to really let the story and the math shine through. Expertly designed by Alice Nussbaum and Five Seventeen, if you look closely you can see many of the math concepts the little girl so dearly loves all through the illustrations. My favourite part is the girl’s math notebook at the end.  I must admit, there were some math concepts I was not familiar with in the story, but thanks to the math notebook at the end, I was given simple explanations for some really complex concepts.  If you live in Ontario, Canada you may have heard the talk about low math scores across the province so Count on Me by Miguel Tanco is incredibly timely and a must have for Ontario classrooms and libraries.