The Warlord's Alarm: A Mathematical Adventure

Warlord

by Virginia Walton Pilegard, Nicolas Debon (Illustrator)

Chuan and Jing Jing use their mathematical skills to ensure that the warlord wakes up on time. They are traveling to the emperor's palace, and they can only sleep for four hours before resuming their journey in order to arrive as the emperor's gates open. How will they wake up? There are no clocks at the inn where they are staying, so they must create their own alarm clock. Chuan and Jing Jing create a simplified Chinese water clock and awaken in time to rouse the warlord.

Genres: Picture Books, Historical Fiction, Mathematics, Childrens, Teaching, China

32 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2006

About the author

Mrs. Pilegard was raised on a cattle ranch in

California's Sierra Nevada mountains. Her latest mathematical adventure picture book is illustrated by British artist Fiona Hodgetts and translated by Maria Cassandra Nah Ayuso. Nicolas Debon, the artist with whom she collaborated on the Warlord Series, includes a horse somewhere in the illustrations in each of their seven books to celebrate her first love. Nicolas includes dragonflies in his illustrations as his own signature. Adrian Tans illustrated Mrs. Pilegard's eighth mathematical adventure picture book. Pilegard still lives in California's foothills with her husband Richard, three dogs, and a Maine Coon cat named "Jetsam."

Reviews

[Heidi-Marie]

An interesting story with two children trying to solve a problem that involves time. This could work for my Schedules/Time storytime or my Puzzles & Problems storytime. I'm not sure how well it would work for reading aloud, considering some of it may be a bit over the younger children's head. Then again, while they do not understand the logistics, they may still get the point that the children used water to help them wake up.

I like that there are instructions of how to make your own water alarm clark. If I could have time to make one, then I could have the clock "running" during storytime and show them each how to make one. That might make for a good activity. We'll see where I go with this.

[Kate Hastings]

Grades 2-6
--Set ancient china, Chuan and Jing Jing need to make sure their war lord makes it to the emperor’s gates before all the others
--long journey, sleep overnight. No alarm clock to wake them before the sun.
--discover that water drips from their drinking bag and takes about 12 hours to empty
--discuss sundials and an incense clock used at the time
--create their own clock to fill a bowl placed over their head so that it will drip at approx. the time they need and wake them up!
--notes in the back explain how to make a water clock.
--discuss types of clocks—sand timers, etc.

[Katie Logonauts]

This story seems to take place immediately following The Warlord's Messengers. Chuan and Jing Jing are accompanying the warlord on his trip to visit the emperor, but in order for the warlord to arrive exactly when the gates of the city open, they need to figure out a way to keep track of time during the night, when a sundial is useless. The invent a water clock, and the Author's Note describes some of the complicated water clocks used by the Chinese. There are also directions to make your own dripping water clock.

[Shelli]

The Warlord’s Alarm is an odd but interesting combination of historical fiction and math. Chuan and Jing Jing have to come up with a creative way to measure time without the use of a clock, the sun and while sleeping. How is this possible??? Teachers will love incorporating this real life problem (albeit an ancient real life problem) into a math discussion.

[The Brothers]

In this adventure of the Warlord series, Chuan (the clever boy) must figure out a way to get up in time to reach the Emperor's City before anyone else, but there are no clocks at the inn where they are staying. He figures out a way by having a water bottle drip into a bowl and when the bowl overflows, the water will splash down on his face.

Great illustrations.

[Kell*]

This is a fun book that reflects a journey two friends take to meet the king, it requires some higher level reading but is great for examining other culture and contexts.

[Amber]

Another impressive living math book. This book did a great job illustrating early ways of timekeeping and making an abstract concept more concrete for my kids.

[Esther]

Water Clock: Children make use of fractions of time and regularly dripping / burning objects to figure out how to "set" their alarm.

[Jenny]

This was a tiny bit hard to follow, but I may have been distracted. My kids enjoyed it okay, but it wasn't a gripping tale. There was an element of science/math and inventiveness to it.