Double-Up Day!

Written by Kari-Lynn Winters

Illustrated by Dave Whamond

Pajama Press

978-1-77278-361-2

32 pp.

Ages 3–7

May 2026 

 

What's Double-Up Day? It's a new tradition that Brandon's big brother wants to start when he realizes all the good things Brandon gets on his birthday. If they double up the goodies and the play, there's more for everyone, with a math lesson on addition to add to the fun.

From Double-Up Day!, written by Kari-Lynn Winters, illustrated by Dave Whamond

When he sees his little brother getting a large birthday gift, Brandon's older brother wonders why there's one for Brandon "...and none for me?" (pg. 5). So, he suggests Double-Up Day, a day on which they double up everything. Thus, one cake becomes 1+1 cakes which makes, "Two berry-licious, yummy-in-my-tummy, birthday cakes to decorate!" (pg. 9) (Note that all numerical terms are bolded in red to emphasize the math going on.)

From Double-Up Day!, written by Kari-Lynn Winters, illustrated by Dave Whamond

After the cakes, there is a doubling-up of party hats, tails on the pin-the-donkey game, popsicles, balloons, balls, running of laps, swinging in the playground, bounces on a trampoline, and finally naptime stories. (Naps seem a requirement for a very young Brandon and a very tired Grandpa.) With each new activity, young readers will learn how to double up numbers one through ten and enjoy some rhyming onomatopoeia as things are wiggly-jiggly, bouncy-wouncy, uppy-puppy, and more.

From Double-Up Day!, written by Kari-Lynn Winters, illustrated by Dave Whamond

The day may end with only one book and a special aunt but the learning that happened through the sharing of Brandon's special day will not be forgotten by readers.
 

Kari-Lynn Winters has used her picture books to bring joy and play to learning, whether it's about the arts (Hungry for the Arts: Poems to Chomp On, 2022), engineering (Hungry for Engineering: Poems to Gnaw On, 2024) or science (Hungry for Science: Poems to Crunch On, 2015), all written with Lori Sherritt-Fleming and illustrated by Peggy Collins or Dave Whamond. Or Kari-Lynn Winters just wants us to have fun, and she gives us stories that make us smile and laugh and still consider what's happening in the story. (For example, What If I'm Not a Cat?, illustrated by Kelly Collier, from 2023, comes to mind.) Or she tells stories that are sensitive in their messaging and perceptive in their subjects like French Toast (illustrated by François Thisdale from 2016). Whatever Kari-Lynn Winters decides to write becomes a story that will matter. Double-Up Day! matters because of its teaching and the learning that will happen, but it's its delivery that matters. The story is festive and upbeat, and, though I was annoyed with Brandon's nameless big brother who selfishly decides to make himself part of a birthday not his own—I'm personally triggered by narcissists who want all attention on them no matter the event—Kari-Lynn Winters ensures that he redeems himself by helping Brandon have more fun than he would have had by himself.

 

Kari-Lynn Winters may give the fun in her playful words, but Dave Whamond gives us it in the silliness of his illustrations. Dave Whamond has written and illustrated his own books (e. g., Oddrey, 2012; Rosie's Glasses, 2018; Hugo's Haunted Handbook, 2024) as well as for those of others, most notably Robert Munsch (e. g., School Rules!, 2020; Think Big!, 2021). But he always brings the silliness of children at play and the frivolity of life. Whether it's a trampolining dog, dripping popsicles, watchful-eyed squirrels, bunny slippers, or kids finding fun in familiar activities, Dave Whamond lets us know that everyone is having a jolly good time.

From Double-Up Day!, written by Kari-Lynn Winters, illustrated by Dave Whamond

If I was still teaching and I knew little ones would miss celebrating their summer birthdays with their school friends, Double-Up Day! would be a great story to read to celebrate double (or even triple) birthdays before the end of the school year. Kids could enjoy a great book, learn about doubling and addition, and having a birthday celebration all in one go. Sounds like a win + win = double win for everyone!

I'm Longer Than You!: An Epic Contest of Measurement

Written and illustrated by Carolyn Fisher

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-1294-6

48 pp.

Ages 5–8

September 2025 

 

With school just getting back into the swing of things, I've been on a bit of a non-fiction run lately. But there's so many wonderful books out there, for different young audiences, to inform and entertain that there is no shortage of new books to review. I'm Longer Than You is a different kind of math picture book in that it focuses on measurement and comparisons for the early reader kids at school i.e., Kindergarten to Grade 3.

From I'm Longer Than You!, written and illustrated by Carolyn Fisher

In Carolyn Fisher's new picture book—she has previously illustrated a number of books for others like Summer Feet and Weeds Find a Way, as well as written and illustrated her own including Cells: An Owner's Handbook—a Supersaurus dinosaur and a blue whale argue about which animal is the longest. What's the easiest way to determine who's right? An inchworm suggests measuring them. So, the little worm gets to work.

From I'm Longer Than You!, written and illustrated by Carolyn Fisher

But after 12 hours of measuring the blue whale–it's 1300 inches long—it's time for it to pupate and leaves the two competitors at a loss. In comes the centipede who measures exactly one centimeter. Now the Supersaurus and the blue whale, salivating for the lunch the winner would get, wait for the centipede to do its work. Twelve hours later, the Supersaurus is also measured but in centimeters. With a little math and conversion between units, the contest is resolved.

From I'm Longer Than You!, written and illustrated by Carolyn Fisher

What a fun way to introduce measurement, systems of measurement, comparison and conversion between units! Carolyn Fisher has found a way to tell a story—and a funny one at that with the contest between two humongous animals—and introduce several math concepts that might be hard to grasp easily. Measuring is a complex concept, and she takes it from its most basic, i.e., how to measure, through the different ways people measure things and what units to use and then to conversion. As such, I'm Longer Than You! can be used for our youngest readers just being introduced to units of measurement to middle graders who are learning conversion.

From I'm Longer Than You!, written and illustrated by Carolyn Fisher

As a non-fiction book, I'm Longer Than You! is anything but dry. It's educational but quirky in its delivery of information. With her illustrations which are hand-drawn on a tablet, Carolyn Fisher makes this a true picture book, albeit an information book embedded in a story. Her art is colourful and bold, and the organization of information, whether it's the true rendering of the inchworm and centipede's sizes or the decision tree to pick appropriate units based on size—after all, using an inchworm or a centipede for these enormous animals was unwieldy—is accessible and presented with clarity and playfulness.

 

I know primary teachers will love using this book to introduce the concept of measurement, but it will be an entertaining starter for any lessons on measurement. Kids will love the contest and comparing animals—this could be a great scaffolding story for lessons on the diversity of living things—but they'll get a fabulous introduction to measurement and some related math concepts like conversion between metric and imperial units. It's a win-win for the Supersaurus, the blue whale, and the kids who get to read or hear the story in I'm Longer Than You!

One Can

Written by Lana Button and Eric Walters

Illustrated by Isabelle Malenfant

Groundwood Books

978-1-773067346

32 pp.

Ages 3–6

September 2025 

 

For many Canadian public schools, yesterday was the first day of the 2025-2026 academic year. That first day of school brings such promise. It's usually a fresh start with a promise for better and more opportunities for...everything. But for too many children, that hope may be limited, even if they don't know it. For the child in Lana Button and Eric Walters's first picture book collaboration, illustrated by Isabelle Malenfant, those limitations do not curb their generosity and compassion.

From One Can, written by Lana Button and Eric Walters, illustrated by Isabelle Malenfant

Knowing that their class is collecting canned food for a food drive, a child grabs the lone can of Zoodelicious from an almost-bare pantry. Knowing it's their favourite, the child hopes it is that for someone else too. In class, the students place their donated cans on a 100-place carpet, with the child placing the Zoodelicious on the number 100, earning their can a snowflake sticker.

From One Can, written by Lana Button and Eric Walters, illustrated by Isabelle Malenfant

Things take an unexpected turn when Mom returns with groceries a few days later and his Zoodelicious can has a snowflake sticker on it. For the first time, the child recognizes that their family may be one of those in need that they were trying to help at school. A frank discussion between mother and child helps them understand better and even how to pay it forward with some much-loved mittens. 

From One Can, written by Lana Button and Eric Walters, illustrated by Isabelle Malenfant

While there are too many adults who think that picture books are frivolous stories aimed for our youngest readers, One Can will surely remind them of the power of storytelling to present deep issues that are also commonplace. There is no frivolousness to this story. Instead, Lana Button and Eric Walters have given us a lovely story of sharing, reciprocity, need, and compassion, all told from the perspective of a young child. What is most surprising is that the child does not even recognize their family as a needy one until they see the snowflake sticker on the Zoodelicious and realizes where their mother must have gotten those groceries. Before then, they had what they needed, probably because their mother worked hard to ensure that they did. Not surprisingly, when their mother reveals their circumstances, the child thinks only of the other 99 families who would still need food and more. 

 

This could have been a very heavy story. Poverty and food insecurity are serious issues. Even as food and clothing drives become common practices throughout the year, and children such as this one are provided regularly with school lunches, here by their own teacher, the silence and secrecy and even shame are resounding. I'm so pleased that Lana Button and Eric Walters avoided those negatives with much sensitivity. The child is not ashamed to look at the school's Mitten Tree–where donated mittens and winter accessories are displayed for gifting–and doesn't hide the macaroni given by the teacher for lunch. Illustrator Isabelle Malenfant matches that powerful but tasteful approach to their story. Isabelle Malenfant, who similarly gave a softness of touch to Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress and Pinny in Summer, keeps her palest colours for the child's home and the boldest for outside. Their poverty creates a veil over their life, though outside of the home and at school, the child is seen as vibrant as everyone else. In addition to the colours of her digital illustrations, Isabelle Malenfant uses perspective to juxtapose the child against two different worlds, one of limited resources and another where there is more. It gives the reader more context for this child's reality and even enhances our understanding of why they are able to extend generosity and compassion to others.

Lana Button's picture books like Tough Like Mum and Willow Finds a Way have always spoken to young children and what they might experience at school and home. And Eric Walters never shies away from tough issues like poverty in The King of Jam Sandwiches or COVID-19 in Don't Stand So Close to Me or incarceration, bullying, discrimination and more. Together these writers have approached the reality of many children, and instead of focusing on any limitations these children experience, they highlight how children can extend compassion and generosity to others. It seems one can, whether that of Zoodelicious or the picture book, can make a difference.

 • • • • • • •

 

Please consider joining author Lana Button 

 

at 

 

A Different Drummer Books 

513 Locust St., Burlington, Ontario

905-639-0925 

 

for the launch of One Can 

 

on 

 

Sunday, September 7, 2025 

1 PM

 

If you're able, please bring a can of food for FeedHalton.  

 

Lines, Bars and Circles: How William Playfair Invented Graphs

Written by Helaine Becker

Illustrated by Marie-Ève Tremblay

Kids Can Press

978-1-77138-570-1

36 pp.

Ages 6-9

April 2017

I love a good picture book biography!  It's an amazing format for telling a person's story without getting bogged down in the minutiae of historical details and trivia.  These books are great introductions and always provide relevant details and references in the appendices for those readers who want to dig a little deeper.  Helaine Becker, who has tackled all genres for young people, is especially well-versed in non-fiction writing including science books, math books and activity books like her award-winning Secret Agent Y.O.U. and Boredom Blasters, and she is no less skilled in telling the story of William Playfair.

From Lines, Bars and Circles: How William Playfair Invented Graphs 

by Helaine Becker 

illus. by Marie-Ève Tremblay

William Playfair, born in 1759 Scotland, liked to dream and play pranks but, after his father died and his older brother John took over his schooling, William was brought up on the scientific method and become an excellent mathematician.  At age 14, he accepted employment with the inventor Andrew Meikle where he learned to draw plans and make different machines.  But Will still sought the big dreams of riches, fame and glory and became the assistant to another inventor and engineer, James Watt.  If Will wanted to be somewhere where he could think outside the box and create and problem-solve, he found it in the workshop of James Watt.  Problem was that Will was too much in his own head to do the work his employer required of him and decided it was best to go out on his own.

Though he developed an effective silversmithing machine, Will's business acumen was negligible and this and multiple, subsequent businesses failed. So he wrote books about history, politics and economics to earn money.  When he didn't have sufficient information to complete a chart, he created a visual representation of the data so that he might extrapolate it from that available, and the first line graph, showing changes in export and imports over time, was born. He was so pleased by its efficacy he took it a step further and grouped information into chunks, thereby developing a bar graph based on countries importing and exporting goods.

Though awarded a French royal permit from King Louise XVI, the French Revolution had him scurrying home and exploring new ways to represent numbers in picture form, leading to the design of the pie chart.  Unfortunately because of his poor track record, Will's ideas were never accepted in his life time (he died in 1823) as valuable.  Thankfully, acceptance did come in time, allowing his ideas for graphs to convey numerical data in a bold and innovative way to be used throughout the world.

From Lines, Bars and Circles: How William Playfair Invented Graphs 

by Helaine Becker 

illus. by Marie-Ève Tremblay

Helaine Becker tells William Playfair's story with the upbeat air necessary for innovation and discovery, though she doesn't leave out the weaknesses in his life's drama.  It must have been difficult to decide what to share from his biography, but Helaine Becker has chosen wisely to share with readers that information which supports the basis for William Playfair's inventiveness and its value without dragging in tedious details of his life.  There's a playful tone to her text and Marie-Ève Tremblay's lively illustrations respect that.  Readers will enjoy seeing a larger-than-life William Playfair stepping out of the roof of his home, heading out to follow his dreams. And cooking up a pie chart while wearing an apron and oven mitt.  Even King Louis XVI losing his head is depicted lightheartedly!

From Lines, Bars and Circles: How William Playfair Invented Graphs 

by Helaine Becker 

illus. by Marie-Ève Tremblay

Though Lines, Bars and Graphs is the story of William Playfair and the development of graphs, Helaine Becker and Marie-Ève Tremblay make it into a whimsical story of thinking outside the box and persevering, even when failure seems to be the norm and dreams appear to be dashed, providing good life lessons for William Playfair and everyone.

Hungry for Math: Poems to Munch On

Written by Kari-Lynn Winters and Lori Sherritt-Fleming

Illustrated by Peggy Collins

Fitzhenry & Whiteside

978-1-55455-307-5

32 pp.

Ages 5-8

January, 2015

Teachers and parents will always be clamouring for new and innovative ways to introduce math concepts, and Hungry for Math: Poems to Munch On will surely work.  But forget the classroom and math instruction, or at least put them aside temporarily, and enjoy the rhyme and reason of the verses within and the varied illustrations of dragons, foxes, clockworks and race cars to add the jauntiness that numbers and operations and such can be.

You know that between the dramatic flare of Kari-Lynn Winters and the Tickle Trunk Players founder, Lori Sherritt-Fleming, Hungry for Math: Poems to Munch On has that special something to add spice to early math literacy learnings.  From unique poems like The Balanced Bee with its zen-like insect, the banging of the drum in Patterns Rock! and The Spendosaur in which a dinosaur goes a little crazy spending his coins in a candy store, the math lessons are neither obvious nor necessary to appreciate the silliness of the rhymes.

The Balanced Bee

Three circles, tall not wide.

Six legs – three per side.

Two plus two wings, on its back.

Bands of yellow, white, and black.

Compound eyes to spy the view.

Antennae, not one – always two.

Now fold your paper.

It's plain to see.

Bees are balanced.

It's symmetry! (pg. 5)

Even a poem like Move Around The Clock, that borrows from nursery rhyme Hickory Dickory Dock, takes on a unique flair with an active mouse in a dress changing her movements with the time amongst the clockwork gears.

Whether you want your child to count the five groups of ten fire-breathing creatures in Rot-TEN Dragons or the abundance of heart-shaped treats (which look very familiar) shelled out amongst the cats in That Kitty Counts is irrelevant. Little ones will want to count the assortment of delectables, determine the banana leaves needed to cover the treasure and learn to skip count in 2s or 5s, especially with Peggy Collins' fun characters, human and non, to accompany them along the way.  Kids won't even know they're learning. That adds up to a book full of promise.

Running Scared

by Beverley Terrell-Deutsch

Red Deer Press

978-0-88995-503-5

176 pp.

Ages 9-12

October, 2013

How far would you go out of your way to avoid walking past  a point that held traumatic memories?  Twice as far?  Three times as far? Grade six student Gregory is willing to take a route between school and home that is four times longer than the direct route past the Jiffy Mart to avoid where his father was killed in a car accident last winter.  He might have to deal with the big yellow dog that barks at him when he runs (to save some time) but it's his choice to take this route, a secret he only shares with his best friend, Matt.  But everything is set to change.  It has been announced that their school will be closing January 1st and the bus that Gregory and others will be taking to their new school will be picking them up in front of the Jiffy Mart. 

So what are Gregory's options?  He has tried, with and without Matt's help, to overcome this fear and continues to try, now with the help of new student Teisha too.  But, he's convinced that they must stop the school from closing, joining the Save Our School campaign.  The only saving grace in his school life (especially since his grades have definitely been slipping in the past year) is participating in the Math Club.  Gregory loves numbers and patterns, as does Teisha, and Gregory doesn't find it difficult to concentrate on the problems the club works on. 

Ultimately, the big yellow dog becomes an important focal point by which Gregory helps Teisha (who has her own issues), by which Gregory helps the dog, its owner and an elderly woman who also cares for the dog, and perhaps sets the scene for making things better for Gregory and his mother.  By helping others, Gregory is ready to find the means (or the math) to help himself. 

Running Scared may seem to follow a straightforward storyline.  You know: boy has fear/dilemma, boy conquers fear/dilemma.  But the inclusion of Teisha who has her own issues with which to deal, Sam Briggs, whose bravado only masks her own needs, and Miss Sunny Marshall who searches for the means to stay independent and successfully navigate her way to and from the Jiffy Mart suggest that everyone needs some help some time and is not always willing to ask for it.  Beverley Terrell-Deutsch creates an assortment of characters who become a community of allies, helping and taking help as given, all without looking fragile or debilitated.  Problem-solving, whether with numbers or issues, is the means why which fear can be alleviated or at least by-passed. Gregory had the right idea all along.  He just forgot that, as in math, reciprocity can lead to balance and progress.