Bug Dance FROM THE PUBLISHER
The bugs in Coach Caterpillar's gym class are learning a new dance. But Centipede can't do it! If he can't learn the directions left, right, forward, and backward, this class will be one big FLOP!
FROM THE CRITICS
Children's Literature
The "MathStart" series has been created by a visual learning specialist with an interest in teaching math. Each of the books tells a story with the purpose of teaching a specific math concept. Bug Dance is a Level 1 book, exploring the concept of direction. Knowledge of direction is critical to map skills and geometry. Centipede loved gym class, but wasn't very happy the day the coach said they were going to dance. "I always trip over all my feet," he said. The coach demonstrated the dance for the students. Two steps to the left, then two steps to the right. The cricket and the fly were excited and ready to go. As they practiced, centipede had problems at firsts, but gradually caught on with repetition. The insect characters are particularly engaging, and the illustrations are a real plus. Each book in this series has instructions for parents and students at the end, including related activities; in this case playing Hokey Pokey and having the children do the dance with the insects on a second reading. 2002, HarperCollins, $15.95, $15.89, and $4.95. Ages 3 to 8. Reviewer: Kristin Harris AGES: 3 4 5 6 7 8
Kirkus Reviews
Murphy (Seaweed Soup, 2001, etc.) adds to his popular MathStart series with this well-meant but clumsy effort at creating a plot around the directional terms left, right, forward, and backward. A handful of insects are collected for the story's characters, with a team of rascally red ants, protagonist Centipede, and his friends Cricket and Inchworm learning a new dance in gym class from Coach Caterpillar. Centipede, of course, has trouble learning the simple dance sequence because of his many feet, though he finally perseveres and gets all his feet going in the correct directions. The simple dance sequence is illustrated with step-by-step diagrams and directional arrows, with an additional summary page, musical score, and an author's note including related activities. Santoro's (Jumbo, 2001, etc.) vibrant watercolor illustrations of buggy-eyed insects are the work's greatest strength, with jolly, jumpy bugs that seem ready to dance off the page. The humorous illustrations soar, but the pedestrian plot about the clumsy centipede keeps tripping on its own feet. Though this isn't one of the best of the series, a determined teacher with enthusiastic read-aloud skills could integrate the story into math or gym class, especially if insects are also part of the curriculum. (Picture book. 4-7)
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