New Releases by Stuart J. Murphy

Earth Day is on the way, and Ryan, Luke, and Carly have a plan. If they manage to collect and recycle 5,000 aluminum cans, they can make enough money to buy some beautiful flowers for nearby Gilroy Park. CAN they do it? Counting the cans gives Ryan, Luke, and Carly -- along with readers -- a lesson in place value. And facts about recycling throughout the story will help readers understand how important it is to take care of the earth.

Mrs. Lopez wants her class to celebrate 100 days of school. But Yoshi, Scott, Nathan, and Maggie didn''t hear her right. They thought she said 100 days of cool! Now Mrs. Lopez says that if the four kids can be cool for 100 days in a row, the whole class can have the coolest party ever. Can they come up with 100 ideas? Cool socks . . . cool jokes . . . cool costumes . . . cool hats . . . cool volunteer projects . . . and all the other cool things that can be done with the numbers 1-100 make this the coolest math book around.

Perry the Penguin needs 9 clams to buy an ice scooter -- but he''s not very good at saving. As Perry earns, spends, finds, loses, and borrows clams, a simple line graph demonstrates the concept of negative numbers.

We''re missing all our buttons! Three firefighters scramble to find 3 sets of matching buttons before the big parade starts. A lively introduction to the simple math concept of sorting by attributes.

Clever Coyote thinks it''s time for lunch –– and also time to show her friends how, with some simple rounding, she can add up numbers in her head. If only she were as good at hunting as she is at math!

It''s hard work, taking care of 5 little ducks. But when each little duck comes home with a friend -- oh, no! Now it''s double the ducks and double the work. How can 1 little boy get everything done? Understanding how to double numbers helps children master both addition and multiplication. Fun, friendship, and lots of ducks make learning this essential skill both easy and entertaining.

How many different ice-cream sundaes can you make? With 6 ingredients to choose from, there are so many combinations. Read all about the sundaes they''re making at the school picnic. Math has never been so delicious!

It''s the last week of Camp Grizzly, and the campers are preparing to elect a mascot. Each day the Grizzly Gazette takes a poll to see who has the biggest percentage of the vote so far. Is it Sophie? Is it Daniel? Or could it be Corey, the new entry in the race? Corey''s determined to do her best. But she''s got to make up for lost time. Can she win out over Daniel and Sophie? No one will know for sure until the last vote is counted! A lively story about summer camp fun will help young readers understand both percentage and voting!

One䓷oThree䒡ssafras! (LEVEL 1: Number Order) It′s the Lumpkin family reunion, and Uncle Howie is ready with his camera. All the cousins have to line up by age for their picture. But just as they are ready to say, ⒡ssafras!⟳omething goes wrong every time! This picture-perfect tale of family fun illustrates the important math concept of number order. Ages 3+

It''s 4 tickets for the Treetop Coaster! Just 2 for the Elephant Twirl! five cousins each have 20 tickets to spend at Safari, and a little algebra will tell them how many rides they can try. But who will dare the death-defying Terrible Tarantula?

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!

It''s a long way around Perimeter Path! Mike''s brother and sister say he''s too young to compete in the 15-kilometer bike race. But if Mike just gets a chance, he knows he can make it all the way around.

It''s slimy. It''s smelly. Its green and it''s gooey. It''s seaweed soup -- and its Turtle''s favorite lunch! Turtle has made enough seaweed soup for everyone. But it looks awful and smells worse! Nobody wants to even taste it. How can they tell Turtle without hurting his feelings? As Turtle serves lunch to his reluctant guests, young readers can learn about matching sets (also called one-to-one correspondence) by keeping track of all the different bowls, cups, spoons, and napkins on the table. Lighthearted art and a surprise ending make this a story readers will eat up.

Captain Invincible and his intrepid space-dog, Comet, are on a perilous journey back to Earth! Throughout their mission, the fearless captain and his canine sidekick encounter asteroids, poisonous gas, and alien beings. But will their knowledge of three-dimensional shapes, including cubes, cones, and pyramids, help our heroes navigate past these obstacles -- and make it safely home?

Shark Swimathon The Ocean City Sharks have to swim 75 laps by the end of the week, and every day they figure out how many laps are left to go. Swimming and subtraction are all part of the fun!

Missing Mittens Every animal on Farmer Bill''s farm is missing one mitten. Readers can investigate odd and even numbers as they unravel this mitten mystery!

Nothing goes right for Jack all day long. He can''t find his favorite sneakers, he spills milk on his math homework, and worst of all, he gets tuna fish for lunch. Will things ever get better? Readers will learn how to tell when something is certain, more likely, less likely, or impossible as Jack keeps hoping his streak of bad luck will break. Maybe, just maybe, pistachio ice cream for dessert will do the trick. But will it happen? Considering how Jack''s day has been going, PROBABLY NOT!

Game Time! Keep an eye on the clock as the Huskies and the Falcons gear up for their championship soccer match. Weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds--it''s all game time!

Let''s Fly a Kite When Bob and Hannah split something, the two pieces had better be symmetrical--exactly the same. BUt to fly their kite, they''ll have to learn something new--cooperation!

Monster Musical Chairs Every time the music stops, one more monster is OUT! Kids won''t be able to sit still for this musical introduction to subtraction at its simplest.

Josh is the best collector on the block. And now he has something new to collect - rocks! Soon Josh and his best friend, Amy, have so many rocks they need to organize their collection. But how? Young collectors will be fascinated by all there is to know about rocks and about classifying - sorting and organizing objects by attributes like color, shape, or size. Grab your rock hammer and join the fun with this entertaining story by Stuart J. Murphy and lively art by Cat Bowman Smith.

The yellow cars beep! The red cars vroom! As Molly plays with her big brother’s toy cars, readers will see and recognize patterns, an essential first step in learning to reason from the specific to the general. But can Molly put the cars back in the right order before her brother returns?

MathStart Level 2: Calendars.

Carlos pours cups, pints and quarts of water into his fish bowl, getting ready for his new puppy, Ripley. Readers can learn about capacity as they see just how much water it takes to make room for Ripley!

Monkeys ride in 2s, tumble by 3s, and march in 4s -- and readers can count them up as the parade goes by!

At Rabbit''s pajama party everyone is eating pizza, telling scary stories, and curling up in their sleeping bags. And what these friends do first, next, and last demonstrates the math concepts of sequencing -- the logical order of events.

MathStart Level 2: Measuring.

Kangaroo is back! In this story he and his friends at camp divide into halves, thirds, and fourths to form teams at field day. Readers will cheer on this rowdy crew of Australian animals as they swim, canoe, play tug-of-war, and have a good, goofy time.

Welcome to neighborhood dog show! First Maxie speaks. Second Baxter begs. Third Daisy rolls over, but will Henry the fourth steal the show? Learning ordinals with this pack of playful pooches will have readers sitting up and begging for more.

MathStart Level 1: Opposites.