Only One

by Marc Harshman

Book Overview

A novel counting book, centered around a county fair and featuring delightful illustrations, shows how single things can combine to make something unique, new and utterly wondrous. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0590486020
• ISBN13: 9780590486026
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Lots of possibilities for math.

I also disagree with the editorial review. I don't see a need for all of the one-to-group relationships to be structured in the same way. Almost all of the situations described in the book (4 wheels on a wagon, 12 eggs in a dozen, 10 cents in a dime) can be used as a take off point to write problems that involve multiple groups (what if there were 10 wagons? 40 eggs?) that help children develop what I think is the central mathematical idea of the book: that many things can be thought of as one thing. This idea, by the way, is the one that is the key to base-10 understanding. I've used this book with second graders and the differences that the editorial reviewer points to did not make a big difference in the way the children responded to the problems I posed.

Intro to quantities that make up sets

I disagree with the editorial review that calls this disorganized. Each page has a statement about individual units that make up a set, and an opposite page with artwork demonstrating the idea. While there are number quantities that are uncountable "There may be 50,000 bees, but there is only one hive" - the majority are simpler to comprehend: "There may be 9 players, but there is only one team." In fact, the book is organized to start with a million stars in the sky, to progressively smaller quantities - 7 peas in pod, 4 wheels to one wagon, etc. - to end with "there is only one me and only one you." Great picture book for ages 3 to 7