Poor Joe! He wants to march in the parade, but every time the lines are uneven, he must stand aside. What's a poor bug to do? Joe is determined. He studies the problem, rearranging the twenty-five bugs in his squadron from two lines to three lines to four lines, until inspiration and fortitude result in five lines of five - Joe fits in at last. From the author and artist who together created One Hundred Hungry Ants comes A Remainder of One, a painless introduction to the concept of remainders. It's sure to please kids, parents, and teachers alike as an innovative and enjoyable approach to the sometimes daunting principles of mathematics.
Hup, two, three, four! We're in the 25th Army Corps. Queen's count! Two, three! We are the marching infantry! Poor Joe! He wants to march in the parade, but every time the lines are uneven, he must stand aside. What's a poor bug to do? Joe is determined. He studies the problem, relining the twenty-five bugs in his squadron from two lines to three lines to four lines, until inspiration and fortitude result in five lines of five -- and Joe fits in the last.
Elinor Pinczes and Randall Enos have collaborated together on another book for children, My Full Moon Is Square. Ms. Pinczes is the author of several other books for young readers. She lives with her husband in Bozeman, Montana. Mr. Enos’s illustrations have appeared in books, magazines, and newspapers for more than forty-five years. He lives in Easton, Connecticut, with his wife.
As they did in One Hundred Hungry Ants, Pinczes and MacKain apply numerical
division to a practical problem-and explain it in an entertaining, visually
emphatic way. Keeping to the insect theme, Pinczes introduces the ``25th Army
Corps,'' a regiment of 25 beetles on parade. Their blue bug queen ``likes
things tidy,'' and when the bugs march two by two, she notices that one bug
brings up the rear. The unfortunate Joe has to stand aside rather than be a
``remainder''; on the days that follow, Joe tries dividing the squadron into
symmetrical rows of three, then four and, finally, five, when he is at last
accommodated. Rather than endorse conformity, this rhyming tale focuses on
Joe's search for a solution. And lest squadron-like precision trouble readers,
each big-eyed ``bug-soldier'' has a unique patterned shell. MacKain even
ensures that the same beetle characters-one with a pointy nose, two wearing
glasses, etc.-appear in every spread, allowing readers to play spot-the-bug.
Rendered in dusty blues and pasture-green with warm yellow, red and pink
accents, her linocut-style art vibrates with energy. Ages 4-8. (Mar.)
"Pinczes and MacKain apply numerical division to a practical problem -- and explain it in an entertaining, visually emphatic way." Publishers Weekly, Starred
