Even Steven and Odd Todd

Title: Even Steven and Odd Todd

Author: Kathryn Cristaldi

Illustrator: Henry B. Morehouse

Recommended Grade Level: 2

Common Core Mathematics Standards Addressed: Operations & Algebraic Thinking: 2.0A.3. Determine whether a group of objects (up to 20) has an odd or even number of members, e.q., by pairing objects or counting them by 2; write an equation to express an even number as a sum of two equal addends.

Summary: This is a story about Even Steven and his cousin, Odd Todd. This is a funny book. The arrival of cousin Odd Todd greatly upsets Even Steven. Even Steven likes everything even. Odd Todd likes everything odd. For example, Even Steven would like 8 pancakes and Odd Todd would like 7 pancakes. Even Steven goes through hard work with Odd Todd. Then, Even Steven notices that odd and even are both good when he wins the Perfect Garden Contest.

Rating: *****I highly recommend this book as it gives several ideas for hands-on activities to help students understand between odd and even numbers. The story also enhances critical thinking by having students think why it matters whether a number is even or odd using examples from things they see in their environment that always comes in even or odd numbers.

Classroom Ideas: This book could be used with several mathematical topics including odd numbers, even numbers, number sense and counting (when you count by 2's all the numbers you say are even). Students could do several activities that can help them identify whether a number is even or odd.