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MathStart Level 2
The Best Vacation Ever
The Best Vacation Ever [MATHSTART BEST VACATION EVER] [Paperback]
Paperback
First published January 3, 1997
3 people are currently reading
90 people want to read
About the author
Stuart J. Murphy
137 books60 followersPICTURES & WORDS, STORIES & BOOKS
MathStart http://www.mathstart.net
I See I Learn http://www.iseeilearn.com
I was one of those kids who talked all the time in class. I loved telling stories. One day in the 4th Grade, my teacher said, “You tell such good stories, maybe you should try writing some of them down.” “Wow,” I thought. “She thinks my stories are good.” That’s when I started to really enjoy writing.
I was also the class artist. When I wasn’t talking,I was drawing. When I was older, I studied art at the Rhode Island School
of Design. That’s where I became interested in visual learning—how we decode and acquire information from graphs, charts, diagrams, models, illustrations and other images.
I became especially interested in educational publishing and have worked on the development of over a dozen major textbook programs, championing visual learning strategies from Pre-K through high school in every major curriculum area.
MATHSTART
The inspiration to write math stories for children was sparked by my work on a high school mathematics program. Visual learning strategies helped teens—who had been characterized as “reluctant learners’—understand difficult math concepts. Putting math in the context of stories based on their experiences made them feel more comfortable with abstract concepts. They actually became eager to apply math to real-life problems.
If this approach worked for older students, I began to wonder what might happen if younger children were introduced to math this way!

Even before children can read—or speak many words—they can interpret visual information with ease. The MathStart books use simple stories coupled with diagrams, graphs and other visual models to teach everything from probability and pattern recognition to area, capacity and negative numbers.
The Best Bug Parade, (comparing sizes) was my very first published book. It was absolutely thrilling to see my name in print! I never expected that one day there would 63 MathStart books, split over three levels for ages Pre-K to Grade 4.
Each book includes two pages of review and activities designed to help teachers and parents extend learning beyond the story, along with suggestions of related books by other authors. After all, if a child enjoys learning math through stories, then let’s have more stories!
(Pictures, Words & Math: An interview with Stuart J. Murphy )
THE MAIN STREET KIDS' CLUB: A MATHSTART MUSICAL
Now get out your dancing shoes—there is a musical based on six of the MathStart books! The Main Street Kids’ Club was workshopped at Northwestern University and adapted by Scott Ferguson, who also created the perennially popular production of Schoolhouse Rock Live!
The songs are terrific. The math is spot on. And the club motto makes my heart sing: “Math Skills are Life Skills!”
STUART J. MURPHY'S I SEE I LEARN
My latest series of books is focused on young children—Preschool and Kindergarten age.
I See I Learn books teach social, emotional, health and safety, and cognitive skills, such as how to make friends, build confidence, play safely, work together, manage emotions, and make plans. These skills are important for school readiness and for living happy, healthy, productive lives.

The stories “star” a wonderful bunch of friends who live in See-and-Learn City and attend Ready Set Pre-K. The cast includes Freda, Percy, Emma, Ajay, Camille, and Carlos. And, of course, Pickle, the green bull dog—who happens to have a soft-spot for butterflies—and Miss Cathy, their teacher.
I See I Learn stories are modeled on real-life situations and, just as in real-life, often involve more than one skill. For example, Freda Plans a Picnic is about sequencing, a cognitive skill, but the picnic itself is a social event. Percy Plays It Safe focuses on playground safety skills, but playing successfully in a group also requires self-regulation, an emotional skill.
Each book is reviewed by a tea
MathStart http://www.mathstart.net
I See I Learn http://www.iseeilearn.com
I was one of those kids who talked all the time in class. I loved telling stories. One day in the 4th Grade, my teacher said, “You tell such good stories, maybe you should try writing some of them down.” “Wow,” I thought. “She thinks my stories are good.” That’s when I started to really enjoy writing.
I was also the class artist. When I wasn’t talking,I was drawing. When I was older, I studied art at the Rhode Island School
of Design. That’s where I became interested in visual learning—how we decode and acquire information from graphs, charts, diagrams, models, illustrations and other images.
I became especially interested in educational publishing and have worked on the development of over a dozen major textbook programs, championing visual learning strategies from Pre-K through high school in every major curriculum area.
MATHSTART
The inspiration to write math stories for children was sparked by my work on a high school mathematics program. Visual learning strategies helped teens—who had been characterized as “reluctant learners’—understand difficult math concepts. Putting math in the context of stories based on their experiences made them feel more comfortable with abstract concepts. They actually became eager to apply math to real-life problems.
If this approach worked for older students, I began to wonder what might happen if younger children were introduced to math this way!

Even before children can read—or speak many words—they can interpret visual information with ease. The MathStart books use simple stories coupled with diagrams, graphs and other visual models to teach everything from probability and pattern recognition to area, capacity and negative numbers.
The Best Bug Parade, (comparing sizes) was my very first published book. It was absolutely thrilling to see my name in print! I never expected that one day there would 63 MathStart books, split over three levels for ages Pre-K to Grade 4.
Each book includes two pages of review and activities designed to help teachers and parents extend learning beyond the story, along with suggestions of related books by other authors. After all, if a child enjoys learning math through stories, then let’s have more stories!
(Pictures, Words & Math: An interview with Stuart J. Murphy )
THE MAIN STREET KIDS' CLUB: A MATHSTART MUSICAL
Now get out your dancing shoes—there is a musical based on six of the MathStart books! The Main Street Kids’ Club was workshopped at Northwestern University and adapted by Scott Ferguson, who also created the perennially popular production of Schoolhouse Rock Live!
The songs are terrific. The math is spot on. And the club motto makes my heart sing: “Math Skills are Life Skills!”
STUART J. MURPHY'S I SEE I LEARN
My latest series of books is focused on young children—Preschool and Kindergarten age.
I See I Learn books teach social, emotional, health and safety, and cognitive skills, such as how to make friends, build confidence, play safely, work together, manage emotions, and make plans. These skills are important for school readiness and for living happy, healthy, productive lives.

The stories “star” a wonderful bunch of friends who live in See-and-Learn City and attend Ready Set Pre-K. The cast includes Freda, Percy, Emma, Ajay, Camille, and Carlos. And, of course, Pickle, the green bull dog—who happens to have a soft-spot for butterflies—and Miss Cathy, their teacher.
I See I Learn stories are modeled on real-life situations and, just as in real-life, often involve more than one skill. For example, Freda Plans a Picnic is about sequencing, a cognitive skill, but the picnic itself is a social event. Percy Plays It Safe focuses on playground safety skills, but playing successfully in a group also requires self-regulation, an emotional skill.
Each book is reviewed by a tea
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
September 22, 2010
A great book that cover math and reading topics. Introduction to collecting data, graphs. The story is rhyming. A busy family needs a vacation and they ask questions and collect data to decide the best place to go.
April 20, 2011
I used this book as a hook in my pictograph and bar graphs lesson for my second grade students this semester. its a great way to connect math and reading.
March 29, 2018
A very busy family. The girl decides they need a vacation. She takes a survey, near or far, cold or hot, etc, turns out the best vacation ever is in their own backyard. She puts up a tent and they get out their swimsuits and wading pool.
March 20, 2019
Simple story with math concepts at the same level as the reading. A family shares what they are looking for in a vacation. The girl puts the votes together (math of addition and greater/less) to determine what would be best. 6 year old grasped all concepts and enjoyed.
September 21, 2018
Easy to read story about making graphs to decide where everyone wants to go on vacation.
May 17, 2022
A good practical use for charts foe kids. A great introduction.
February 28, 2024
So good that a kid checked it out and hasn't returned it yet :)
October 30, 2012
The Best Vacation Ever is a book about a family trying to decide where to take a vacation to. They decide to graph and take a poll of what type of place, the condition of the place, and who and what to bring to the vacation spot. I liked how the little girl took everybody's votes and then added up the majority to decide that their best vacation spot was in their backyard. As a class, you could take a vote on two different options of something let's say the type of surprise the class has earned for good behavior. You can have two boxes that represent what they are voting for and then have each student write their answer on a piece of paper. At the end, allow two students to come up and count the votes to see what was the winner!
January 7, 2012
This is a fun story about a family deciding where to go on vacation. Through polling the family on a series of questions and choosing the majority decision in each case, the family discovers what the perfect vacation location is for them. Each question is charted, so the tally can be counted easily. It's an entertaining tale with a short, rhyming narrative and great illustrations. We enjoyed reading this story together.
November 22, 2012
I really like this book. It shows how collecting data can be applied in real- life. The family in the book tried to collect data from the family to see where they should go for their vacation. I can use this in my class by letting students collect data in class. Students will go around the classroom interviewing their classmates to see which food is popular. They will then create a graph to show their data.
December 3, 2012
This book is excellent in the concept of creating a bar graph. Bar graphs help set data up in an organized way. This book would be a great introduction to charts. I would have student vote on their lunch choice for that day and we would graph it on a chart. I line how the little girl did the graphing, instead of patents. I would allow a student to draw the graph and do the charting( I will aid the student of needed).
October 10, 2013
This book is about a family that desperately needs a holiday as they are so very busy.
The family have decided that they need a holiday but are unsure of where to go.
This is where the author very cleverly uses a cross-curricular approach to maths the books shows us how the young girl collects data to make the decision of where to go.
Another thing I loved about this book is at the end it gives activities to do at home which could also be used in the classroom.
Appropriate age: 6+
The family have decided that they need a holiday but are unsure of where to go.
This is where the author very cleverly uses a cross-curricular approach to maths the books shows us how the young girl collects data to make the decision of where to go.
Another thing I loved about this book is at the end it gives activities to do at home which could also be used in the classroom.
Appropriate age: 6+
November 3, 2010
This is wonderful! It is a great way to introduce children (1st and 2nd grade, kindergarten too, depending on their level) to collecting data. It introduces asking a question, collecting data and keeping track on charts, then using the data to answer the question. Colorful pictures, and has rhyming.
(It's a fictional story, but is about a nonfiction principle)
(It's a fictional story, but is about a nonfiction principle)
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June 12, 2011This book shows what many people do to decide on things. They chart things out and weigh the outcome. That is exactly what the girl did to help her busy family decide where to vacation to. This book illistrates counting and charting skills. The Best vacation ever is apart of MathStart series.
April 12, 2012
Fun story about a family who has to make a decision about where to go for vacation. The rhymes and illustrations in this book makes it a easy read for both teacher and student. I would use this book to teach problem solving and graphing.
Grades:1-2
Grades:1-2
August 15, 2019
My children absolutely adore this book. Reading literature is so important to the development of a child's mind, and I cannot think of thing I would rather do then sit down to read to them in the evenings. Imagination and growth are so vital in those so young.
February 5, 2010
A good book to review and introduce graphing to students! Great ideas, questions, and/or activities to do on the last page of the book to do with students during and after the book.
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April 11, 2011This is a great book to introduce grouping and sorting to kindergarten and 1st grade. It also has literary devices such as rhyming.
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October 4, 2011Book about a family trying to choose where they want to go on vacation so they make graphs to decide. Good to use for graphing lesson or introduction.
October 10, 2014
Sneaky way to work math into nighttime stories. My daughter didn't even mind and was interested in the polling of vacation options and the charts showing the results.
April 17, 2014
Great to go with a unit on voting... and turning them into charts/graphs.
March 31, 2010
Introduces charts and data keeping.
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April 14, 2017The Best Vacation Ever is a story about a family who are wanting to go on a trip together. The trouble is that each family member is always so busy and it's hard to schedule a time to get away. Finally the little girl decides she's going to make a chart of where the family wants to go. In the end, the little girl decides that the best vacation would be a camp out in the backyard with the family all together!
I thought this storybook was great! It's quick and easy to read. The pictures are bright and colorful, with wonderful detail. I overall, loved this story because in a way it also reminds me of my family and our vacation dilemmas.
This book would be good in a K-2nd grade classroom because it would be easy for these students to read and understand. The teacher might read this book before summer break and have her students write a short story of what their summer vacation plans consist of.
I thought this storybook was great! It's quick and easy to read. The pictures are bright and colorful, with wonderful detail. I overall, loved this story because in a way it also reminds me of my family and our vacation dilemmas.
This book would be good in a K-2nd grade classroom because it would be easy for these students to read and understand. The teacher might read this book before summer break and have her students write a short story of what their summer vacation plans consist of.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews