Mummy Math: An Adventure in Geometry

Matt and Bibi Math Adventure

by Cindy Neuschwander, Bryan Langdo (Illustrator)

Matt, Bibi, and their dog Riley crawled through the tiny opening first. FWUMP! A secret door suddenly closed behind them . . .

Matt and Bibi use math to escape from a pharaoh's tomb!

When the Zills family is summoned to Egypt to help find the hidden burial site of an ancient pharaoh, Matt and Bibi are locked into an adventure they did not expect. Stuck inside a pyramid with only each other, their dog Riley, and geometric hieroglyphics to help them find their way, the twins must use their math knowledge to solve the riddles on the walls and locate the burial chamber.

Luckily, the two know their stuff when it comes to geometric solids.

Genres: Mathematics, Childrens, Picture Books, Geometry, Stem, Egypt, School

32 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2005

About the author

Cindy Neuschwander is a native Californian, born in San Diego, CA. Her father was a naval officer and later a high school teacher and her mother was a homemaker. She has one younger brother.

Cindy graduated with a BA in International Studies from Willamette University and earned an MA from Stanford University. She has taught all grades in elementary school as well as high school.


Cindy began writing books in 1994. She had used math literature with her own classes in the early 1990’s and liked the way students responded to it. She wanted to use more of these books but found there were not many available so she started writing some of her own. Her books are published by Charlesbridge, Henry Holt, and Scholastic. She usually writes one book a year.

When she is not teaching or writing, Cindy enjoys spending time with her family. She has been married to her husband, Bruce, for over 30 years. Their older son, Tim, is a medical doctor working in orthopedic research. Their younger son, Seth, is a college student training to become a firefighter. Cindy and Bruce own three dogs; two Dalmatians and a Gordon Setter. Cindy loves to travel, bike ride, and swim. She and her family are Christians who are active in their local church.

Reviews

[Margaret Chind · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally posted on Creative Madness Mama.Read on July 01, 2011 — I own a copy



At this point for my girls I know I am a bit ahead of the game, but I cannot help getting excited about education books for them. While researching ideas in The Well Trained Mind and other catalogs I came across the Sir Cumference Series (Sir Cumference Pack) by Cindy Neuschwander. While I have not yet read those I am delighted to start with Mummy Math: An Adventure in Geometry. What a fun adventure! This shore but education story is great for kids both before and after they have been introduced to geometry. Stories like this make math fun. Using a great font this book will be an excellent early reader once my girls reach that level and until then I enjoy reading it to my toddler with rapt attention.

This review was originally posted on Creative Madness Mama.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 6-year-old really liked this book. It was his first formal introduction to geometric solids. He was really interested in it and understood a great deal. It helps that he's excited about pyramids and mummies, since that's what we're studying in school right now. He had made some 3D pyramids from paper in the last couple weeks, and I could see the light go on in his head when he made the connection between that inquiry and some that the book suggested. I would say that this book teaches more about geometric solids than Egyptology, but it was neat to have it in the Ancient Egyptian context.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, some children get lost in a pyramid and have to 'read' the clues to find their way around inside. Using their knowledge of shapes, they follow the instructions. As a teacher, I thought that their reasoning was a good example of explaining attributes of shapes and why they thought so. As a mom, I thought that the parents outside the pyramid were not brought into the story and it was strange that they wouldn't be worried if a door slammed shut leaving their kids inside and them outside.
The story, of course, was about the shapes- so best to leave the rest alone.

[Katrina Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a unique way to review and reitterate geometry.
The story is constructed as a fun mystery that students can solve through questions presented.

Students: 3rd- 4th grade

Brief surface content about Egypt and the pyramids/mummys

Content:
- Geometric solids
- Perimeter
- Area
- Angles
- Riddles

[Lacey Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for kids to practice their geometry! The plots is very interesting and unique. Students can try making their own hieroglyphics with geometric shapes as well.

[Jessie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this anywhere near as much as the Sir Cumference books, and I found it less mathematically engaging as well.

There are a couple of places in this where one answer is presented as wrong and another as right, and I think both answers would be reasonable with appropriate support.

Suspension of belief questions: would "face" as in a person's face and "face" as in a polyhedron's face really be represented the same way? (Did Egyptian mathematics have a concept of "face?" Most of what I know about what they did with geometry of 3D objects is related to volume.)

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

When the Zills family is summoned to Egypt to help find the hidden burial site of an ancient pharaoh, Matt and Bibi are locked into an adventure they did not expect. Stuck inside a pyramid with only each other, their dog Riley, and geometric hieroglyphics to help them find their way, the twins must use their math knowledge to solve the riddles on the walls and locate the burial chamber.

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't think much of the math presented in this book. There's a lot of story for relatively little math (analyzing 3D shapes) and it's kind of fake math.

There are so many things in a pyramid that could inspire wonder in kids. I just felt that this fell short.

[Kristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book. I read this to my second graders and we had a great discussion about Mummies. I liked the little math that was put in the book as well. I told the third grade teacher about it and she read it to her class as well. I would recommend this book to others.

[Heather Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

megan spring reading 2017, children's book, picture book, math, adventures, mummies, Egypt, second grade, third grade,

[Myra Benedict · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matt and Bibi and there dog found a pyramid but soon there traped well math is every where so they decide to escape using math or should I say math escape.a good and fun book for children

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 4th graders enjoyed hearing this as part of our Geometry unit.

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a nice tie-in of maths with our ancient Egypt studies.

[Vo Khon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Story to tell how many faces( flat sides) of these 3d shape: cone, sphere, cylinder, cube, rectangular and triangular prism, tetrahedron.

[Emily Chickering · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. This would be great to use when teaching math and to integrate reading and math together.

[Travis Kesinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was extremely engaging and would be so beneficial in the classroom. I think any piece of literature that can combine different subjects into one teachable moment is extremely useful. I would definitely implement this book in my own classroom. It uses elements of math to takes students on an Egyptian journey. This is beneficial for a unit on Ancient Egypt, shapes and geometry, and obviously literature.

Purpose:
Read aloud to 3rd grade students
This book would be best used in a classroom that is going over geometry in a math unit. The book would require students to identify different shapes, their properties, and how they were incorporated into the story.

The cultural aspects of this book are also important because Egyptian culture tends to be very interesting to students and being able to disguise literature and math within this topic would be an effective teaching moment.

[Pumpkin+Bear · Rating 4 out of 5]

My kiddos LOVED this living math book that combines geometry with an Indiana Jones-style tomb raiding adventure. Since we're also studying Ancient Egypt right now, the tendency for me was to want to discuss all the inaccuracies of the kids' adventure (what with their touching, fooling around with, and desecrating every artifact in the pyramid, these kids ARE going to rival Professor Jones one day!)But you know what? The adventure is fun, so I left it alone.

My kiddos definitely came away from the book with an understanding of geometric faces, although the names of most of the geometric solids went over their heads. Good extension activities for this book would be to build and sketch the geometric solids mentioned in the book, and to turn their names and images into memory work.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting and exciting story about two children finding their way around the twisting mazes and passages in an Egyptian tomb.

Their knowledge of geometric shapes and the concept of faces (or the flat sides) on them help the children solve the riddles and puzzles and reach their goal.

The story is a bit convoluted, but it's entertaining and the illustrations are fun, too. I like that the discussion of a mathematical concept is woven almost seamlessly into the story. We enjoyed reading this book together.

[Hailey Dellinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would use this text in 3rd-5th grade classes to practice and review geometry. This book covers many content areas like: Geometric solids, Perimeter, Area, Angles and Riddles. I really liked the theme of this book and it would be great theme for a lesson as well. It has an Indiana Jones adventure theme that you could set out clues in the classroom to discover and put together geometric shapes to further on in the quest!! I really like how they incorporated family into the book to solve daily problems.

[Khadija Bensaadoun · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is about a family who visits the pyramids in Egypt. Two brother in the family get stuck inside the pyramid and they use clues geometric shapes to escape. The books describes the shapes with geometric words such as faces, edges, and sides. A lesson activity: the students can play a game as a class, they would describe a shape using geometric vocabulary and the students would guess the shape.

[Brittany Balunas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge Egypt buff and studied the art for 2 years. I am ecstatic that there is a book that bridges the history of one of my favorite subjects and math. I will use this book to introduce an Egypt theme that includes writing in heiroglypics and geometry. This book does a great job of introducing 3D shapes to solve mysteries. Students can make up their own sentences in code using the shapes in the books and have a partner decode them.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great intergrated lesson of literacy and geometry. I was not thrilled about the style of writing, may be boring for students. Questions throughout the story may keep children engaged during this read aloud if used in a classroom, also a variety of voices to represent the characters would be useful. Would be a good introduction book for a geometric shape lesson.

[Julia B · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an excellent introduction to solid shapes in real-life contexts. Last year I had my students do sorting and scavenger hunts for real-life solid shapes, and I would use this book to supplement this activity. This book could also be used as a math center, where students would find the shapes described in the book and represent the shapes with play-doh.

[Kimberly Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mummy Math is. Cute book that talks about a brother and sister's adventure to Eygpt where they must use their geo entry skills. The concept of geometry solids can be difficult and this book would offer a great window into some memorization skills to remember geometry. Incorporating histor into the book is also a cute concept.

[Sade]

The story is about the Zills family on an adventure to a hidden burial site of an ancient pharaoh. However, the twin brothers in the family get stuck inside a pyramid with their dog. Yet, they must use math to figure out a way to escape the pyramid. I would used this type of book in my classroom by showing how math can solve most of our problems and how we use math daily to solve our problem.

[Frank Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is a very well written math book for young students. Students can relate and will be engaged by the excitement of the adventure. I think relating shapes to real-life objects like pyramids is helpful in terms of understand. The story primarily focuses on geometry. I also like problem solving in the story is related to something practical.

[Jasmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This would be a wonderful book to read to your students when introducing geometry and the different geometrical shapes. This adventureous books allows students to use their thinking skills and geometry skills to figure out how The Zill family will find their way out of the pyramid. This book could also be used for a history lesson on Egypt.

[Sharia A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about children that are solving an Eygptian mystery with geometric terms. This book has basic drawings for students that are in basic grade levels; however, the book is worded for a higher level learner. This book includes terms like pyramids, perimeter, and area. This book would also be useful for teachers to help with Eygptian history.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book about 2 children lost in an ancient pyramid and trying to find their way out by using geometric clues. Interesting way to introduce children to more more "complex" geometry ideas in a very user friendly way.

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about these two children adventure in the tombs of Egypt. They talk about all the 3-d shapes they encounter in the tomb. This book is a great book to introduce students to 3-d shapes, its engaging and fun with lots of nice visuals.