How Many Bears?

From School Library Journal Grade 1-3-The detailed watercolor illustrations really enhance this book, since the story is basically a glorified, albeit clever, math problem. How many bears does it take to run the bakery in Little Animal Town? Well, it takes four fewer giraffes to run the soda fountain, two more buffalo to run the library, etc. Tiny hippos cavort among beautifully painted flowers and different kinds of bears work on pastry items in the bakery. This story could be nicely integrated into a math unit with the teacher first reading it aloud, and then letting students work through the problem in a second reading.