Shaping up summer - Lizann Flatt

What if animals and plants knew maths, just like us? Would spiders draw
pictures in their webs? Would narwhals sort blocks of ice by shape?
Would insects know what's above and what's below? In Shaping Up Summer, nature comes to life
to help children grasp concepts of geometry, symmetry, and spatial
sense.

Maths in Nature is a lovely four book series, which explores seasonal and natural beauty through maths concepts, which are made engaging with energetic and colourful paper collage illustrations, poetic language and thoughtful questions. Each book also includes nature notes at the end, which give more information about the animals and plants featured in the seasonal scenes. Colourful, cut- paper collage art uniquely evokes
the natural world,
while two levels of text - one a lyrical story, the
other asking
children to problem-solve - bring the reader to a full
understanding of
the maths concept being covered. The engaging "What if?" format of these informational picture books is sure to delight five- to seven-year-olds.

Lizann was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. She's the author of over
12 nonfiction books and numerous short stories and poems. Her picture
book "Let's Go! The Story of Getting from There to Here" was named the
2009 TD Grade One Giveaway title, which means the book was given to
every grade one child in Canada-nearly 500,000 kids. Her work has
appeared in Ladybug, Babybug, and Highlights for Children magazines.

Lizann
is a former editor of Canadian children's magazine Chickadee. She has
an Honours English degree. When she's not writing, Lizann gardens,
bakes, works as a part-time library circulation clerk, and photographs
the flora and fauna in her backyard. (She's almost embarrassed to say it
but, as the exception that proves the rule, she actually does have
beavers in her backyard.)