A Very Improbable Story

A Very Improbable Storyis a picture book designed to introduce children to the idea of probability.

Ethan awakes one morning to find a cat on his head, only it is not his cat. The cat refuses to leave until Ethan wins a game of Odds. The cat proceeds to beat Ethan and he is left wondering if he will be wearing a cat hat to his final soccer match.

As he keeps playing the game, Ethan realizes that the high probabilities make his chances of winning unlikely. At breakfast, he discovers a low probability option that finally gets the cat off his head. He uses his new knowledge of probability to work on improving his shot choice and hopes it will result in a win for his team.

This will not help children master probability, but it will introduce them to the concept and some general idea of where probabilities occur in the real world. It is again a great way to introduce a concept that can be challenging to learners early as a way of easing anxiety later.