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"Teach Your Child the Multiplication Tables" by Eugenia Francis: Patterns make them real.

Learning the times tables has, rather, gone out of fashion and I am one of those who finds this regrettable, not in theory, but in daily practice.

I provide "academic support" at a local college, which means I do a great deal of tutoring in math. Every day I work with people who are at least inconvenienced, and at times truly hampered by the simple fact that they haven't mastered the times tables.

Having worked with diverse learners, I have long wondered why so many mathematical materials are so wedded to spewing symbols when it's so much easier to include graphics and images to convey ideas. Learning the times tables does not have to be reduced to rote recitation!

Fortunately, other people seem to have the same idea. Eugenia Francis' delightful "Teach Your Child The Times Tables" brings the times tables out of "recite the proper sounding words" or "copy the right symbols" and makes connections between the facts and their meanings with a playful circus theme.

The book does have to contend with the realities of the printed page: how much can you put on a page? While some of the visuals are densely packed, the book succeeds in integrating lots of review and lots of variety in presentation, and integrates word problems throughout the book so that there are authentic examples of how the times tables are used.

I was, however, completely confounded by page 12 and 16. There were pictures with times tables below them which didn't seem to match them in any way I could figure out. Was I supposed to ignore the pictures? or the times tables? The last set of pictures had the four times tables on them, which haven't even been learned yet.

After that, though, the book shows its strengths. There is review and further exploration of number patterns, with many chances to develop a natural fluency and "number sense." Other visual examples of times tables make perfect sense (the three rows of nine ice cream cones on page 124, for example).

Most importantly, there is lots of *practice* - that is not utterly repetitious. Students who need to engage more than the "rote" part of their brains to remember things will find these exercises satisfying.

This book gives me hope that publishers can do better with making math more accessible to visual and hands-on leaners. For more information, see www.teachildmath.com There is a Spanish version of the book available as well.