Basher Basics: Math: A Book You Can Count On

By Simon Basher and Dan Green

Meet Zero, a bubbly fellow who will dissolve you to nothing, and say hello to the all-action Units, who just love to measure. Get a load of greedy Multiply, a big guy who hoards numbers together, and stand amazed by mysterious Pi, who goes on and on and on . . . to Infinity!

Multiply your number know-how with Basher's unique one-stop guide to the building blocks of mathematics. Packed with top tips and memorable characters, this is an essential book for students ages 8 and up.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Jun 8, 2012
• ISBN: 9780753469163

Simon Basher

Simon Basher is an internationally recognized illustrator, author and artist. His range of work includes large scale paintings, animation, printmaking and digital media. He is best known for creating and illustrating a novel series of books that make science and other topics fun and accessible for younger students. His illustration style is described as graphic surrealism; a synergy of European graphic design and Japanese character creation. Simon Basher lives and works in London, England.

Reviews for Basher Basics

[kgeorge_68 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book uses characters representative of the terms to illustrate the meaning of the concept. Each concept is explained in a one-page summary which includes the definition, historical content, and examples. The preceding page shows the character that either represents the concept itself or engaged in some action that is representative of the concept. This book covers basic math concepts such as adding, subtracting, types of numbers (odd, even, prime). This would not be a book that I would use all in one class sitting. Instead, I would pick out the relevant concept and read the description during the lesson to help those students who might be more of visual learners.

[kris0812 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book provides students with visual pictures and short one page descriptions of various math terms. The book is written in a kid-friendly way that may motivate students to study the terms. The format changes from a few quick facts, to a short first person narrative, and then back to quick historical facts. I would not read the book cover to cover with my students, but would read specified pages as an introduction to new topics in math.

[vwhitt_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a cute way to describe math to children. Not only does it include math skills that children will recognize, it includes images that children can look at to understand the skills in the book. For instance, it shows a character holding up a slice of a cake to represent subtraction (because he took away that slice from the whole). I also liked this book because it discusses the math topics in a way children will get. It talks to children using their own language. This book was written to interest children in grades 3-6 and is on 6.3 reading level.

[sammarocco · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book would be a good resource to use in the classroom. It has different terms we use in math with descriptions under each. It is written in a way that kids would understand easily.

[jroy218 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

"Math: A book you can count on!" comes from the Basher book series. This book delves into topics such as numbers, operations, shapes, and data. It defines each term and gives examples of it and has a cartoon character type drawing to go along with each term. This book presents many terms at one time. I believe it would be too much for a student to hear all at once. I would pick and choose what terms I wanted to share out of the book with the students and share it that way. Reading this book from cover to cover may be overwhelming. It would be convenient for a student from 3rd to 6th grade to have a copy of this book to refer to as a reference source during homework time.

[kratzerliz23 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I would use this book to introduce a new math topic that was going to be discussed. I would first ask what my students knew about the topic. Then I would read from the book. After reading about the topic I would ask what my students wanted to know about it. Sometimes the book's explanations are a little too complicated, so parts of the writings might have to be omitted for younger audiences to understand. Hopefully the book's writings will spark questions by students.The accuracy of the book is good. Besides explaining about the topic it lists 3 meaningful facts about it at the top of the page. At the bottom of the page it lists topics related to the main topic. If a reader wants to know something quick about a math topic this book is a good place to start.

[harriewatson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have rated this fairly low even though I bought it for my own personal collection. The book seems intended for perhaps 4-5th grades up. The text is filled with many interesting historical and relational facts about math. I am using some of the information from this book for an adult education GED lesson plan series I am designing. The reason for my low rating is that I don't think the intended audience would read this book. A good math student who has an intuitive relation to numbers would find this interesting to read, but would probably not learn much new. Students striggling with math would never read this. There are some puzzle feature boxes showcasing what I guess are alternate paths to do addition, etc. They are not intuitive and would only be understood by someone with an already good grasp of the processes, who would then have no need for a lengthier alternative.This is a concept book aimed not at emergent readers, but probably middle school up. With proper support by a teacher this could possibly be used page by page in perhaps grade 3 up. The concept explored is numbers. It looks at what the numbers themselves represent (nothing in case of 0), operations on numbers, lines, data, and area. The book is divided into relational chapters with each page and facing graphic tackling one topic in a short essay. Organizationally each text page is similar with bullitted summary facts at the top. The bottom of the page has more succinct history facts and some boxes of exercises. The explanations are strightforward and easy to follow if you already know what is being discussed. This might be an expert-blind spot, because a middle school student, and perhaps even high schoolers, might find the essays require more thinking to connect the dots than they would be willing to commit to. The style and vocabulary language is consistent throughout the book. The style of graphics is consistent also, but the graphics are more "cute" and in current style than actually offering much in supporting the ideas of the text. The value of the text would not be dimished at all by having no graphics. I believe this book has more value in the hands of a creative teacher or parent than for a child alone reading it.

[slbenne1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book would be a great resource for all grade levels. The author personifies each math aspect, and creates clever phrases that a student can remember easily. Each page is accompanied by memorable pictures that students of all ages would enjoy.

[ktnguyen-2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Similar to the other Basher Basics math books, this one is an introductory guide to the fundamentals of mathematics. The book would be appropriate for elementary students (3rd-5th grades). Although the book is part of a series, I would like to know who Dan Green is. There is no information on the author to be found. There is an attached pull-out poster that summarize the entire book. The book is colorful and vibrant. Each math topic or function is illustrated and anthropomorphized. The top of the page include bulleted main points, followed by explanations and an example. The bottom of the page would have a Puzzle problem. On the opposite page would the animated drawing of the character. The language is humorous. However, I think the overuse of word play makes the language a bit difficult for me to focus on the math. A much needed index and glossary are provided at the end of the book. The index is accessible, but the glossary is overcrowded. The glossary would be more user friendly if there is spacing between entries. The book is organized by content, ordered from simple math number theory concepts and number operations to higher math. The topics seem to follow the path of what an American student would learn from K-12 years. The table of content divides the book into major topics, with no subheadings. It does not explicitly state that the topics as Chapter headings until I flip through the book. However, each chapter is given a particular color scheme, such as teal blue for chapter 2. Small color tabs also make locating chapters easier.

[sabdelaz · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A very desirable book for those math lovers out there. It is about the numbers like infinity, zero, the negatives which are the ones that can confuse and cause students taking math to become mind-boggled. It has so many interesting historical facts about math also. This question also has the potential of giving students of math a break from the traditional math. A perfect book to have handy for those struggling in math as the foundation of math.

[romakerby · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The book is set up in a very organized matter. The chapters are separated by types of math (i.e. numbers, shapes, etc.). Within each chapter is terms related to the chapter title with small phrases to help describe the term for the audience to easily understand, then goes into more detail in first person. The author's choice of writing the book in first-person, as if the author was each term, is especially intriguing. I think the manner in which the author does this helps grab the audience's attention. As the audience is the age group 10-13, I feel it will capture their attention because the information is not portrayed as a lecture to make the kids think that they have to learn from it like a school text book.