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Rating: 
Summary: Addition left to right
Review: I disagree with the last reviewer. As a first grade teacher, I liked that the number sentences demonstrated the commutative property (could that be why the author had the animals commuting? LOL) Our class could discuss how the sentence 5+2 is the same as 2+5 for example - regardles of which group on what truck was counted first the total animals is the same. We could make trucks and put our own little animal on them, and write our own # sentences in our own little books - changing the order of the trucks and getting the same result. (Part-part-whole concept.) A child shouldn't be taught that adding two quantities works only one direction and it's either right or wrong based on the direction you write the # sentence. 5+2 =7 is the same as 2+5=7. Even 7=5+2 or 7=2+5 is correct! I appreciate that that the numbers are commutable in this text!
CG
Rating:
Summary: Animals on Board, addition facts made fun.
Review: In this book delightful rhyming prose is used to tell a story about some very special animals being transported on trucks. Children add the animals as they pass, while number sentences are shown to reinforce the concept. In the process of reading the story, children try to guess where these tigers, swans and panda bears might be headed. When the animals finally reach their destination, the illustration encourages children to find all the animals they encountered on their journey and to make sure they arrived safely. I use the Mathstarts books frequently in teaching Kindergarten, it helps show children, that math is part of everyday life, and encourages them to tell their own "math" stories.
Rating: 
Summary: Orientation problems
Review: The concept for the book is very nice: adding everyday objects. The problem comes in the way the drawings are done. On one page, we see a truck carrying three tigers. On the next page, a truck carrying two more tigers follows the first. Below is a billboard with the equation: 3+2=5. Enter the problem. Whereas in the equation the number 3 is on the left, in the illustration the picture of the truck with the three tigers is on the right side. Similarly, the 2 in the equation is to the right of the 3, in the drawing the truck with the two tigers is on the far left. It would have been *much* nicer if the layout of the equation and the layout of the truck corresponded to one another. On a finer point, because in the USA (and obviously in other parts of the world) we read from left to right it's consistent to teach children to work this way, too. Having children jump around to count first the three tigers on the right, then jump left to count the remaining two can cause unnecessary confusion. To be fair, above the equation are pictures of the corresponding number of tigers, so the tigers can be counted/viewed there also. Still, the awkward positioning is unfortunate. The rhyming text is adequate, but nothing special. The illustrations are very nice. They manage to be interesting and colorful without distracting from the actual story. From the rave reviews I read on the MathStart series, I expected more.
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