Usha and the Big Digger Online Sale

Description

Usha and the Big Digger

By: Amitha Jagannath Knight / Illustrated by: Sandhya Prabhat

That’s not what it is!

When sisters Usha and Aarti look up at the stars, they see different things. Aarti sees the Big Dipper, but little Usha sees the Big DIGGER. And cousin Gloria sees the Big Kite! Could they all be right? 

This installation in the Storytelling Math series is a playful introduction to rotation, geometry, and spatial relationships, featuring Indian American characters and a note about cultures and constellations.

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Author & Illustrator

Amitha Jagannath Knight, author

Amitha Jagannath Knight has lots of experience with sister squabbles, as she grew up with an identical twin. (They are still best friends.) Amitha lives in Massachusetts with her husband, two children, and two cats. This is her debut book.

Read more about Amitha.

Sandhya Prabhat, illustrator

Sandhya Prabhat is an independent animator and illustrator from India. She has published nearly a dozen picture books. She also animates videos and designs e-stickers.

Read more about Sandhya. 

Awards & Honors

• A Mathical Honor Book

Editorial Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

Usha loves two things: trucks and cartwheels (although she’s still not quite sure how to do a cartwheel). When her big sister, Aarti, points out the Big Dipper while stargazing, Usha doesn’t see a scoop at all; instead, she sees a truck. Usha confidently tells her sister that the constellation (or, more accurately, as Knight notes in the backmatter, the asterism) she’s seeing isn’t a big dipper—it’s a big digger. Things get even more complicated when the girls’ cousin Gloria comes over the next night. Gloria doesn’t see the constellation as a scoop or a truck; she sees it as a kite! Through all of this, Usha practices her cartwheels. Each of the girls is convinced that the others are seeing the stars in the wrong way, until Usha flops on the ground after a failed cartwheel and realizes that the constellation is, in fact, a scoop, a truck, and a kite, depending on its orientation. This latest edition to the Storytelling Math series features stunning illustrations of dark-skinned South Asian protagonists, with Gloria apparently biracial (Black/South Asian). The book bursts with charming images of endearing kids, and the story’s presentation of the girls’ varying, equally valid perspectives is a valuable tool for promoting empathy. However, its success at demonstrating the principle of orientation via a constellation is imperfect; any of the concrete examples in the backmatter would have worked better. Read for the illustrations and the characters (but not the math).

Downloadables

Details

Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-62354-202-3

Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-62354-201-6

Spanish Bilingual Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-62354-217-7

Spanish Bilingual Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-62354-218-4

E-book
ISBN: 978-1-63289-953-8 EPUB

Ages: 3-6
Page count: 32
9 ¹/₂ x 9 ¹/₂

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