Shaping Up Summer

Lizann Flatt

What if animals and plants knew maths, just like us? Would spiders draw pictures in their webs? Would narwhals sort blocks of ice by shape? Would insects know what's above and what's below? In Shaping Up Summer, nature comes to life to help children grasp concepts of geometry, symmetry, and spatial sense.

Maths in Nature is a lovely four book series, which explores seasonal and natural beauty through maths concepts, which are made engaging with energetic and colourful paper collage illustrations, poetic language and thoughtful questions. Each book also includes nature notes at the end, which give more information about the animals and plants featured in the seasonal scenes. Colourful, cut- paper collage art uniquely evokes the natural world, while two levels of text - one a lyrical story, the other asking children to problem-solve - bring the reader to a full understanding of the maths concept being covered. The engaging "What if?" format of these informational picture books is sure to delight five- to seven-year-olds.