A beautiful and well written picture book that encourages the reader to use math in a way that is extremely fun and playful. Mr. Shaw, the principal at Bayside School is retiring and a festival is given in his honor. Eddie, who is a student, is extremely wise in math, so much so, he has the entire school believing he is psychic in telling the ages of people without looking at them, but in reality it is a matter of comparing numbers, and knowing basic math facts such as greater than and less than. Ultimately Eddie is fooled by Mr. Shaw and loses his title as an undefeated champ. The book is a very playful book incorporated with beautiful illustrations. ( )

This was a very cute math book. Eddie loves to play with numbers, and he loves to guess people's ages. Eddie has a booth at the school fair. The booth is big dunk tank that he sits on. Random people and students come up to his booth, and he has to guess their ages after a series of questions. If he guesses their age wrong, he immediately gets dunked. I think this book is great for early readers to ease into the world of numbers. ( )

Summary: A book about Eddie who has a booth at the school fair on guessing people’s ages. He hasn’t guessed wrong yet but if he does he gets dunked into the water. Until he doesn’t guess a friend's grandfathers age right! This book tells a story while comparing whole numbers and understanding what’s more and what’s less.

Personal Reflection: This is a fun book that uses colorful illustrations and tells a fun story based off of a game that is put on by a student. It goes through some important math concepts and skills that are important for young students to learn.

Curriculum Connection: This book can be used in a Kindergarten or 1st-grade math lesson when teaching students about more and less with whole numbers. In the class, the concept of the game can be taken and the students could play a guessing game. ( )

More or Less by Stewart J. Murphy starts off with a carnival of sorts, celebrating the retirement of Eddie and Clara’s principle. Clara wants to win prizes. Eddie has to guess people’s ages in less than six tries to keep from getting dunked. He is very good at it. People change their voices and he still gets it right.

Clara is disappointed when she loses and goes on to try to win other prizes. She does not win anything. Then she sees her grandfather. She thinks he may win against Eddie. Eddie tries to guess his age, but he is so old and Eddie is not able to use the same method he has been. After six tries, Eddie loose and he is dunked.

When he gets out of the water, he discovers that it is the principle, who happens to be Clara’s grandfather. Clara’s grandfather picks out the biggest prize and gives it to Clara.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked the multiple story lines and waiting to see if Eddie would get dunked. It was predictable, but I still enjoyed it. I liked figuring out what method Eddie was using to guess the ages as well. The pictures were also very good. I love carnivals. I want to go get cotton candy now.

This book has a guide to the math concepts in the back. The math can be disregarded all together, but it would be fun to use with children and have them guess what is going to happen. I would highly recommend this book. Even without the math I found it useful and funny.
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Eddie has a booth at the school fair where he has to guess someone's age--while blindfolded in six questions or less. If Eddie can't do that, he gets dunked. If he can guess the person's age in six questions or less, the player wins a prize! This book is a good read aloud for young children learning about math concepts, more or less.

http://www.stuartjmurphy.com/books/level_1/
This website is about the author, Stuart J. Murphy and contains information and fun games for students to learn more about his books. ( )