Good as a practice reading book for beginning readers.

Learn about length and size as you compare bugs in the best bug parade.
1 book

Time Machine
Best Bug Parade... 2.5 Stars, April 22, 2005

I like the MathStart Series *in general* but I wish there was more consistency from book to book. "Henry the Fourth" which explored ordinal numbers was great. The story had a cute plot and it kept my children's interest. "Missing Mittens" (which was all about even and odd numbers) had a clumsy rhyme and it wasn't nearly as good. This book about comparing-and-contrasting sizes is different still. It has too few words and virtually no plot. Take a look at the sentences from the first *3 pages*:

"I am big."
"I am bigger than you are."
"I am the biggest bug by far."

Not much plot development there, and while the pictures detail more activity, it is insufficient for young readers/viewers.

On the bright side the `summary' pages are good. They show the 3 bugs currently under discussion (small, smaller, smallest, for example) in juxtaposition which makes it easy to talk about the concepts.

So I would say that if you are willing to compose a story to go along with the pictures you can use this book to successfully teach your children about relative size. Without your input though they aren't going to get much out if it.

Material covered in "Best Bug Parade":

Big, bigger, biggest
Small, smaller, smallest
Long, longer, longest.
Short, shorter, shortest.
Good, Better, Best.

And as usual there are 2 pages of related activities suggested at the end of the book.

Pam T~ ( )

Which bug is the biggest? Which bug is the longest? It's time to find out as all the bugs in Ladybug's garden line up for the best bug parade! This fun book written by Stuart J. Murphy and illustrated by Holly Keller introduces size comparison in its simplest form. This is a Level 1 MathStart book, which is perfect for kids ages 5 and up. The MathStart series uses funny stories and colorful art to show kids that they use math every day, even outside of the classroom!

Genre: Fiction
Reading Level: Grades K – 2, Grade level Equivalent: 1.3
Summary: The bugs in the book are off on a parade! The bugs measure themselves in shortest to tallest, long to longest, and smallest to biggest. After all the bugs get into their orders, they line up and start a parade. This book helps with students learning how to measure things and judge between different sizes. This book uses the shapes and sizes of the insects to teach younger students about how to size things. The book is math-related, helping students be able to organize and identify things then out them into categories.