Michael J Rosen illustrations by Julia Patton J Millbrook Press Minneapolis
To each young reader who might be loving numbers the way I came to believing in words MJR N NFL To my 4x math mad A s JP
Dear Readers I can’t begin to calculate my delight with this book It might be 94 6 percent It might be close to a ton 2,000 pounds It could even be 1,001 gallons of happiness Ever since I was young whenever something involving arithmetic came along friends and even grown-ups would say Oh just give the math to Mary Before long my nickname had become Ms Mary Math And today I’m the go-to wiz for mind-boggling math questions So what’s the story behind the book in your hands It’s a dozen doozies story problems from all across the 2 3 billion acres that make up the United States To help you appreciate some of these amazing numbers you’ll find that I’m going to use you for a few comparisons I know readers come in all shapes and sizes but I’m going to pretend that you stand exactly 4 feet tall That you weigh about 60 pounds And that you can walk 1 mile in 20 minutes These are all just averages but you’ll soon see how they can help us understand some truly tricky questions What about metric conversions you ask Or at least one of you faithful readers is bound to ask You can find those at the end of the book So let’s get on with the math MMM
