Fibonacci Zoo, by Tom Robinson

Mr 7 at our place considers himself a bit of a mathematician: we recently had a book called ‘Number Places’ that he whipped through as they had been doing that at school. So when I saw the name the book, ‘Fibonacci Zoo‘, I thought, this could be a great picture book for him. A fun way to introduce the Fibonacci sequence to a kid, perhaps.

The story pretty is pretty thin and is obvious in how it introduces the Fibonacci sequence, but I guess when teaching kids about number patterns you don’t want to make it too cryptic.

For my boy it was great. He was really interested in learning the pattern and the section at the end that helped us notice the Fibonacci sequence in the world around us, particularly in our own bodies.

I looked up the publisher Arbordale Publishing, as I hadn’t heard of them before.  The publish lots of books that have an educational element. They also had heaps of additional resources for parents and teachers. This is a little section to parents from their additional resources:

Two of the most important gifts you can give your child are the love of reading and the desire to learn. Those passions are instilled in your child long before he or she steps into a classroom. Many adults enjoy reading historical fiction novels . . . fun to read but also to learn (or remember) about historical events. Not only does Arbordale publish stories that are fun to read and that can be used as bedtime books or quiet “lap” reading books, but each story has non-fiction facts woven through the story or has some underlying educational component to sneak in “learning.” Use the “For Creative Minds” section in the book
itself and these activities to expand on your child’s interest or curiosity in the subject. They are designed to introduce a subject so you don’t need to be an expert (but you will probably look like one to your child!). Pick and choose the activities to help make learning fun!

Now we will be looking out for more of these same books. A great way to expose kids to educational concepts in a storybook form. Yay!