Review Opportunity: Dradnats and the Metric Measurement Kids by Linda Dawson

Title: Dradnats and the Metric Measurement Kids
Author: Linda Dawson
Age Range: Children
Genre: Nonfiction - Mathematics
Publisher: CreateSpace
Release Date: October 12, 2013
Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.com/Dradnats-Metric-Measurement-Linda-Dawson/dp/1492146269/

It's just a matter of time before the United States goes metric. Did you know many industries in the U.S. have already gone metric? This book fills a gap of complete metric education for children and adults by providing an easy way to learn ALL the basic metric prefixes and supplying a metric conversion table within the book.

The table and other content of the book explain how the metrics system is based on multiplying by ten or dividing by ten. It comes with a delightful and suspenseful story using Milli, Centi, and Deci girls in the family as well as their brothers Deka, Hecto, and Kilo! As a reader, can't you just hear that the first three prefixes sound like little sisters and Deka, Hecto, and Kilo seem like big strong brothers? In the middle are the Mr. and Mrs. Meter, Mr. and Mrs. Liter, and Mr. and Mrs. Gram. As a reader, you will enter the Land of Metrica and experience the adventures of the Metric Kids! From the Milli, Centi, Deci Girls to the Deka, Hecto, and Kilo Boys, you will find they have to be very clever to escape the Giant Ogre Dradnats! (Dradnats is the U.S. system of measurement: Standard/Customary spelled backwards!)

Dradnats and the beautiful color illustrations inside are detailed and very uniquely drawn by the extremely talented and experienced illustrator, Lisa Rivard. Although Dradnats and the Metric Measurement Kids is a children's book, it will help ALL ages to understand the order of ALL the prefixes (which are lacking in standard elementary math textbooks and workbooks) and how these prefixes relate in size.

The reader will learn that instead of having to use fractions in conversions and finding a least common multiple (common denominator), metrics offers an easy solution by multiplying by ten, dividing by ten, or simply moving a decimal point to the right or to the left. This book will enable the classroom teacher to easily teach metrics and conversions to students; it will also help parents and adults to understand the metric system. This will help children in metrics homework without the need of using the computer to do the conversions for them.

The author feels this is very empowering and makes the whole system understandable. The child often cannot go to a computer to get an instant answer in conversions if faced with metric problems on a test! The author also includes a website where kids and parents can practice problems. Answers will be given to make sure the problems are done correctly. There will be easy conversion problems and more complicated conversions for the accelerated learner.

Since very few people in the United States even understand what metrics IS and fact that over 90% of the world uses it, the basic concept of the book is an introduction to this wonderful measurement system! There is the Meter which is distance/length, the Liter which is capacity/volume (and easily shown as a liquid), and Gram mass/weight. Companies across the world want U.S. products in metric. We want our children to excel in math and science, and careers in these subjects demand knowledge of metrication.

Engineering careers are leaning strongly towards metrics. Many children's books solely about metrics are sadly outdated with their presentation style. Dradnats and the Metric Measurement Style is the answer to the question, "How can I learn about metrics in a fun way with a I will enjoy?" It's way past time for the U.S. citizens to start making the transition to this measurement system, and this is a very good first step!

Linda Dawson is a retired teacher with 31 years of service. She taught fifth grade for more than twenty of those years. She taught difficult math formulas with chants and cheers. There was a lot of clapping with the formulas for area of a square, circle, and triangle -- to name a few. As she drilled these formulas, she would say "Keep clappin'!" until the next one she wanted to have the kids to recite came to her mind. Any type of information that needed to be remembered was taught with movement (marches, for example), sound (made up songs or songs from educational internet), and writing (usually explanations).

When it came to metrics, she invented a family where Milli, Centi, and Deci were the tiny girls, followed by Mr. and Mrs. Liter, Meter, and Gram, and then the big boys -- Deka, Hecto, Kilo. The boys were very protective of their sisters since they were thousands of tims bigger. (Ol' Kilo is a million times bigger than his sister, Milli!) This family evolved into a book, Dradnats and the Metric Measurement Kids. Dradnats is our system of measurement spelled backwards. She published the book that had been in her head for years in October, 2013!

Links: Website + Amazon

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