The Times Machine!: Learn Multiplication and Division. . . Like, Yesterday!

by Danica McKellar, Josée Masse (Illustrator)

Overview

Learn at home with help from The Wonder Years/Hallmark actress, math whiz, and New York Times bestselling author Danica McKellar using her acclaimed McKellar Math books! A revolutionary and FUN way for 2nd to 5th graders to memorize multiplication facts outside of the classroom is finally here!

Join Mr. Mouse and Ms. Squirrel and experience an entirely new way of memorizing multiplication facts. Using colorful stories, silly rhymes, and more, Danica McKellar helps to break down the rules of multiplication and to translate many of the (often confusing!) multiplication and division methods taught in today's classrooms. This lively "times" travel adventure is a lifesaver for frustrated kids and parents everywhere and a great way to "zero out" worries about homework and tests.

If Mr. Mouse can learn to have fun with math, anyone can!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101934029
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	06/30/2020
Series:	McKellar Math
Pages:	232
Sales rank:	137,955
Product dimensions:	7.60(w) x 9.40(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	750L (what's this?)
Age Range:	7 - 10 Years

About the Author

Danica McKellar is the New York Times bestselling author of groundbreaking math books, including Do Not Open This Math Book, picture books Goodnight, Numbers, and Ten Magic Butterflies, and the middle school hit Math Doesn't Suck. She is a summa cum laude graduate of UCLA with a degree in mathematics and has published an original theorem in the prestigious Journal of Physics now known as the Chayes-McKellar-Winn theorem. She is the recipient of mathematics and educational awards, including the Communication Award from the Joint Policy Board for Mathematics, and UCLA's Science and Education Pioneer Award in 2018. She testified before Congress about encouraging women to excel in mathematics, and was even named Person of the Week by ABC News for her unique and valuable work as a math education author.

Danica is also well known for her acting roles on The Wonder Years, The West Wing, multiple Hallmark Channel movies, and more. Visit McKellarMath.com to see the ever-growing line of Danica's helpful, fun math books!

Josée Masse is the illustrator of the bestselling The Care and Keeping of You, and a recognized artist in her native Canada, having illustrated numerous French and American picture books. She began her career as a graphic designer. Josée lives and works outside Montreal.

Editorial Reviews

"Actor-author McKellar, who has a mathematics degree, uses catchy visuals to teach kids and parents multiplication and division in a way that's more entertaining than memorizing times tables. Colorful illustrations and appealing cartoon graphics, stories, and rhymes explain multidigit multiplication and long division. The text and fun visuals make the book a useful way to teach mathematics to kids and parents alike." —Booklist

"The brilliant-through-simplicity textual explanations are easily accessible to independent readers, and the problem sets are set up for readers to succeed. Multiplies the good times for young mathematicians." —Kirkus Reviews

"Using methods from the Common Core State Standards, the math is described in easy-to-understand pictures and examples. McKellar provides methods for memorizing the times tables, but more importantly, explains in numerous ways why and how multiplication and division work." —School Library Journal

From the Publisher

05/01/2020

Gr 2–4—McKellar's follow up to the successful math book, Do Not Open This Math Book, focuses on multiplication and division. Using methods from the Common Core State Standards, the math is described in easy-to-understand pictures and examples. McKellar provides methods for memorizing the times tables, but more importantly, explains in numerous ways why and how multiplication and division work. Colorful, simple illustrations fill most of the book; random historical facts break up the math and provide real-life scenarios. Some of the explanations are a bit confusing or superfluous, but the majority of the text is accessible and very useful to struggling students and those working ahead. Concept reviews, with plenty of practice problems, conclude each section. VERDICT While this title is confusing at times, it guides students through the entirety of multiplication and division taught in second through fourth grade. Some lessons may help struggling students grasp the concepts not understood in class and teach younger students who are working ahead. Suggested for most libraries.—Katherine Rao, Palos Verdes Library District, CA

School Library Journal

2020-03-25
A thorough introduction to understanding multiplication and division.

In this follow-up to Do Not Open This Math Book: Addition + Subtraction (2018), celebrated mathematician, writer, and actor McKellar returns to guide young readers through multiplication and division via a punny time-machine motif. Comic strips that introduce each section feature McKellar and her two companions (pessimistic Mr. Mouse returns and is joined by peppy Ms. Squirrel) traveling through humorous historical anecdotes that serve as jumping-off points for the math, sometimes in unexpected ways. The organizational flow is intuitive. Charts and visualizations are presented to help readers solve basic problems by understanding number relationships; then memorization tricks are given to help master times tables (some clever, some rhymed); finally, McKellar tackles more complicated concepts (the order of operations, or PEMDAS—with pandas; multidigit problems; and long division). The visuals throughout help in keeping the material so simple that even adults will be able to follow math pedagogy they didn’t learn but that’s currently being used in schools (and there’s a guide in the backmatter). The brilliant-through-simplicity textual explanations are easily accessible to independent readers, and the problem sets (“Game Time” sections in each chapter) are set up for readers to succeed. For extras and more math, McKellar points readers to the book’s website and to her more-advanced middle school book, Math Doesn’t Suck (2008).

Multiplies the good times for young mathematicians. (answer key, index) (Nonfiction. 7-12)

Kirkus Reviews