FICTION

Peg + Cat: The Race Car Problem

by Billy Aronson
OXLEY, Jennifer & . illus. by Jennifer Oxley & Billy Aronson. 32p. Candlewick. Sept. 2015. Tr $12.99. ISBN 9780763675585. LC 2014952486.
COPY ISBN
K-Gr 2—This math-filled picture book features Peg and Cat, the two main characters from The Chicken Problem (Random House, 2012), who now have their own show on PBS. Here they create a race car out of junk and enter it in the Tallapegga Twenty, a 20-lap race featuring Peg's neighbors as announcers, referee, and fellow drivers. The book is peppered with basic math concepts of shapes, counting, and simple arithmetic, but the story feels forced around these concepts, resulting in a lack of compelling plot or realistic conflict. The illustrations make clever use of clear shapes, placement of numbers, and graph paper-style backgrounds throughout, quietly reinforcing the simple math that the authors want her readers to learn.
VERDICT While this offering is not a first purchase, libraries that collect titles related to children's television programs will surely want this book.
Reviewed by Amy Koester, Learning Experiences Department, Skokie PL
Peg and Cat (of PBS Kids fame) participate in the Tallapegga Twenty with a car they built from geometric junkyard parts. Shapes and simple mathematical concepts are introduced in the busy narrative, which may make readers feel as though they are in a race. The flat illustrations look like stills from the TV show, complete with trademark graph-paper backgrounds.
 , Aug 01, 2015

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