A trend to notice

Surely the biggest contribution that picture books make to a child's development is to help them learn the value of a good story. Year after year picture books tell appealing stories about family life, about animals, about fantasy creatures. Now they are being asked to do more. Reviews in the N.Y. Times Book Review this week give a round-up of picture books about math for children. Educators have been telling us for years that American children do not excel in math and girls in particular turn away from it because in our society math is considered dull and fit only for geeks. But given a chance, many children would learn the excitement of knowing about numbers, and falling in love with numbers as a chld can lead to a lifelong love of math and perhaps a career in science or engineering. So three cheers for math books for preschoolers. Let's hope this trend will last a long time.