Storybook math

Fresh off a read-aloud in my eighth-grade language arts class, the prospect of crafting a middle school math lesson starring a children's book suddently doesn't seem crazy. I have my book picked out and a general idea of how I will approach the lesson on paper, but I wish the "Using Creative Writing and Literature in Mathematics Classes" had devoted more space to strategies for incorporating children's books and how to make them acceptable-i.e., not laughed right out of the room. The article focused on one way, and it was a fantastic way--asking students to write their own math story. (I wish I'd thought of it.) To be sure, the lesson as described gave me a couple of ideas for my own lesson, mostly related to creating a rubric, but the authors wrote almost nothing about children's literature, in general, save for the ability for stories to emphasize math vocabulary. It reminded me of the article several of us read for our literacy class about reading aloud to middle-schoolers, but that article's example was of a nonfiction, picture-book account of a mountain-climbing discovery. For our imminent purpose in math class, I remain interested in how to introduce a cutesy picture book to middle-schoolers learning math; some of the books that Robin recommended, and those off the link on the class Web site, seem sufficiently funny to pull it off. I spent some time at Third Place Books over the weekend choosing my book; I was tempted by The Greedy Triangle but ended up choosing another that I think can be used in a playful way. Maybe what's tripping me up is the idea of using some earnest children's tale to teach 14-year-olds math, so when I sat down to go through my options, I felt more comfortable choosing something that seems accessible beyond the audience for which it is intended.