Score with Race Car Math

November 1, 2013

Gr 3-5-Athletics-themed series are typically popular, but this one may struggle to find a following since question-and-answer exercises are its focus. The writing, although clear and full of accurate facts about the subjects, is not engaging. The visuals consist of mostly action shots of the sports; they're attractive, but some are small. Each book begins with an introduction followed by chapters that mix facts and statistics about the subject with math questions and answers. The last chapter describes a game, meet, or race, and tries to build excitement with close outcomes. For example, in Basketball, there's just three seconds left in a game and the score is 69-68; players James and Dylan both jump for the ball. "The final buzzer sounds, and the crowd roars!" Readers do not need to work the problems out since the answers immediately follows the questions, but the explanations are solid and could be helpful to struggling mathematicians who are interested in the featured sports.

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