The Greedy Triangle

The Greedy Triangle (Scholastic Bookshelf)is a creative way to teach children the language of geometrical shapes and about the importance of being satisfied with yourself.

The Greedy Triangle is happy being a triangle fitting itself under a person's arm when they put a hand on a hip, along with many other wonderful tasks. However, one day when it is bored, it asks a magical shapeshifter for another angle and another side and our trip through shape geometry begins. As with most picture books, children can predict that the triangle will never be happy with its new shape and always returns to the shapeshifter for one more side and one more angle.

The story introduces children to looking at shapes as formation of sides and angles that increase and can be seen as building up from other shapes. At the end, the triangle has lost his friends and cannot remember why he was so dissatisfied at being a triangle and requests that the shapeshifter make him a triangle again.

I am always looking for fun math stories that introduce concepts and vocabulary to children. This book would be most appropriate for young children. Unlike some of the other books I reviewed, I do not see this one appealing to an older audience of children.