Marco the Great and the History of Numberville a fantastical adventure series that will have readers learning math and enjoying it by SK Bennett Book Tour with Guest Post and giveaway
Synopsis (from Amazon):
Marco did okay in math. He could follow the complex
blueprints provided to him, navigate the steps, and arrive at the answers that
earned him a shiny grade near the front of the alphabet. That is, until middle
school. As new and confusing letters started creeping into every question,
Marco developed a problem. When a new figure 'pops' into his life, he is
introduced to a fantastical world where numbers rule, where they live together
in villages, engage in duels, build stadiums and cheer for their favorite team
as players are flung through the air. Marco's imagination runs wild as he
develops new powers and hungers for more.
But everything is not as it seems. Join Marco, his
annoying little sister Maggie, and his best friends Oliver and Liam (a math
whiz and a conspiracy nut), as they discover this magical world is more real
than they ever could have dreamt. And find out... Will Marco master the
Numberfolk before the Numberfolk, very literally, master him?
More info:
Marco the Great and the History of Numberville is the first installment in a fantastical adventure
series that will have readers learning math and enjoying every minute of it. In
addition, the text includes over 300 practice problems and solutions as well as
access to an entire digital world allowing students to dive directly into
Marco's world with 40+ games to level-up their learning.
Marco the Great and the History of Numberville is a MathBait publication. The first installment in the
series covers standards from 6th & 7th grade Prealgebra. The exact topics
can be found at www.mathbait.com/marco-the-great.
Marco the Great has
a 4th-6th grade reading level and was written for a middle school audience.
However, it is a great option for younger students as well, either
independently or read aloud. Throughout his journey, Marco encounters bullying
which may be uncomfortable for younger readers. Parents may skip the related
passages (pages 22, 60, and 112), if desired, for the given audience
Excerpt from Marco the Great and the History of Numberville
The following is copyrighted material.
Chapter
Five: Letters
Despite the enjoyment his tutoring sessions brought, he had not
yet fallen in love with the educational jail known as Mrs. Sanders’ class.
The beast of the day was word problems. In an
unusual change of events, as his classmates struggled to translate
sentences to numbers and letters, then
to numbers, and finally back to words again – for the first time, Marco
found himself at the head of the
class.
“A new robot toy was released, and you are excited to buy it.”
Mrs. Sanders always tried to make word
problems have some interest to her students. While it was a nice thought, they
all boiled down to an equation of some
sort with all the context removed anyway. “It is listed for $50, but there will be a sale offering 20%
off. How much will you save if you buy the game on sale?”
Oliver’s hand shot up. Marco’s best friend, like his sister,
possessed a genetic supernatural power
that made them number savants. While everyone else struggled to move an inch,
they could come in and easily jump a
mile. The fact that Oliver was also the class clown and always in trouble helped balance the nugget of
jealousy that ached in the pit of Marco’s stomach.
“Yes, Oliver?” Mrs. Sanders pointed to her student. “You will save
20%,” Oliver answered with a smirk.
Quiet giggles erupted from all corners of the classroom.
After a sharp look, Mrs. Sanders painted her smile back on and
responded, “You are correct. But how
much money would that be?” In an
instant, the class became the robots from the
problem and following their programming, they all put their heads down
and began scribbling on the paper in front
of them. Unlike his cyborg peers, Marco put his head down, but wrote nothing on his paper. He had a different
idea. Remembering what he had talked about with Mr. Pikake – that numbers are ours to control –
he let his imagination take over.
Knowing that ‘percent’ meant ‘out of 100’, Marco saw the number
100. A vacuum cleaner was sucking out
20s from the number. SLURP! Now, it
was an 80 and a 20. SLURP! Now two
20s and a 60. Marco kept sucking at the number until it lay on the ground as
five disoriented 20s. He turned his
attention to the $50 from the question. He changed the settings to rip the 50 into five pieces as well in one mouthful. SLURP! Five 10s shot out the back.1
He slowly
raised his hand. Oliver shot Marco a look that read ‘what are you doing?’
“Marco,” Mrs. Sanders called.
“10?” Marco answered
reluctantly.
Mrs. Sanders looked at the clock which read 9:58, “No, it’s not
quite 10 yet,” she responded. “No. The question. You’d save ten dollars.”
Her face frozen in a state of shock, Mrs. Sanders looked down at
her paper and back up at Marco. “Oh, um, yes. That is correct, Marco. Nice
job.”
Riding his math high for the rest of the day, Marco was silently
thrilled when Oliver took it upon
himself to recount the event for Liam at lunch.
“You should have seen it, man!” Oliver exclaimed. “The teacher
couldn’t even solve it as fast as
Marco.” He turned to add, “Your tutoring must be going well.”
Marco pushed and pushed but couldn’t hide his smile. His green
eyes were bright with excitement as he
began to tell his friends about Mr. Pikake. “He’s a little crazy, I’m not
going to lie. It makes things fun. It’s
like a video game, but rather than zombies, we are hunting numbers.” Pretending to be a character in the
boy’s favorite game, Marco mimed out a zombie
hunt.
“Are they evil numbers trying to eat your brain?” Liam laughed.
Although Marco hadn’t thought about it
before, the way Mr. Pikake talked about numbers gave him the sense there was something dangerous about them. Realizing
how bizarre that was, he shook the thought
from his head.
Guest Blog Post
By SK Bennett author of Marco the Great and the History of
Numberville
How
to teach anything to anyone
How do humans learn? In very basic terms, learning is like piecing
together a puzzle. Our brains have
formed a picture based on our previous experiences and knowledge and when
something new joins the party, it must figure out where in this existing
jigsaw the new information fits in.
In short, to learn something you really need to already know something else. When my grandmother passed away, I took up crochet in
her honor. I pulled out a pattern to
begin and it looked something like this:
Hdc in next 3 sts
Huh? Turns out, I needed to learn
a lot about crochet before I could
even begin to crochet. Once I figured
out how to translate the information stored in strange shorthand and characters, I needed to then
learn how to execute these codes before I
could even start accomplishing my goal of crocheting something.
This barrier of prerequisite knowledge turns teaching complex
tasks or ideas into a huge mountain
learners must scale. It’s also the reason why so many struggle in math and so many educators are plagued with
insurmountable challenges every school year.
Luckily, there is a way to make learning much easier. A story.
Have you ever wondered why certain fairy tales stand the test of
time? In short, it is because they have
found a way to simplify complex ideas into a digestible meal that is not only easily scarfed down by anyone, but
also a craveable feast. In other words, a
good story makes learning both easy and fun.
As a mother, I understand the importance of teaching my children
right from wrong. I also understand this
is not an easy task. I have gone down many ‘why’ holes in my life.
“You shouldn’t lie.”
“Why?”
“It’s wrong.”
“Why?”
“You
are misleading someone and telling them something that isn’t true.” “Why?”
“What do you mean why? I don’t know why you’d do it, you
shouldn’t!” For a child, understanding the intricate nature of lying,
consequences, credibility, and mortality
seems impossible. There is too much to understand before you can even begin to understand. Enter The Boy Who Cried Wolf.
In this tale, a young boy experiments with the
‘ding-dong-ditching’ of his day:
screaming for help and laughing as the villagers come running only to
find there is no real emergency. The
lesson emerges when the boy encounters an actual threat but has used up all his good-will and trust, causing no
one to heed to his calls.
It’s beautiful. Somehow in only a few pages, this story manages to
help very young children understand the
complicated topics some philosophers spend their entire career on. It unpacks a multifaceted issue
into a bite-size takeaway that even a five year-old can grasp. When I lie it causes people to stop
believing me, which can be very bad if I
ever really need help.
Even better, it’s memorable. That is the power of a story. In Marco the Great and the History of Numberville I present middle
school math concepts that are tricky for most
students. Through imagery, analogies, and relatable situations, these
same challenging ideas now feel
obtainable and even intuitive, because a story is a powerful
thing.
So next time you are looking to teach someone something new, tell
them a story. Not only can it make
understanding complex tasks accessible, it is also much more likely to stick in their brain and stay there.
Interview Q & A
SK Bennett author of Marco the Great and the History of
Numberville
On writing:
How did you come up with the idea for Marco the Great?
I have always been an avid reader and a lover of stories.
When my daughters were young, we would
read The Magic Treehouse series and I was so impressed with how well my kids
could pick up on facts from fiction much
better than they could with standard textbooks. The idea to create a similar mathematical fantasy world
rattled around in my brain for years. It wasn’t until my daughter hit 6th grade and was really
struggling that gave me the push I needed to help her. I was substituting a class and the way I
happened to explain solving equations had a fun
and creepy vibe to it. At that moment I finally knew what the story
would be. I started writing and honestly
haven’t stopped since! As a bonus, my daughter no longer ‘hates’ math, she
has this wonderful excitement when she
talks about it, she is so proud and confident, and she went from being behind to being a leader in her
honors course. This alone was well worth it, and I so hope that Marco
the Great can have a similar impact on
students across the world.
How did you do research for Marco
the Great?
The math was the easy part. I feel like I have been
researching not only the content but the
best way to present it to students for my entire personal life and
professional career. Every one of the
100+ math textbooks I own, every experience as an educator, and every ‘aha’
moment contributed to the scope,
sequence, and presentation of the topics.
I, in some way, researched everything else that went into Marco the Great.
Sometimes this was a deep dive into
Google or the books I have at home, but often it was just throwing myself
into the experience. In one scene, Marco
and Mr. Pikake do math in the snow. My kids and I physically did this. I wanted everything to
be just right and believable. For instance, I needed to know how it sounds when you are shivering
and trying to speak the character’s words. So we played it out! We even wrote out all the
equations with a stick and took pictures of them to aid me as I wrote the scene.
Which character was the hardest to write? The easiest?
Every character comes with their own challenges. It’s easy
when writing to get into a flow of how
you, the author, might say something. I caught this early and took the time to
write a
background document for everyone. This was so helpful. Once
I knew their story (even though none of
it is actually in the book) I knew how they would respond to situations, what
they would say, how they viewed the
world.
Mr. Pikake was a fun challenge because he has a sharpness
of speech that includes a lot of
alliteration and no nonsense. That’s hard when he is the ‘teacher’ and
introducing concepts. How do you express
the mathematical ideas in a way that readers can understand but at the same time doesn’t belabor the point and
remains authentic to the character? Maggie might have been the easiest only because I already
know her: she has a lot of myself and my
daughters in her.
Marco the Great has
unique page numbers, how did you come up with this idea?
One goal of the book was to help students see that numbers
are everywhere. There are numbers we see
and don’t ever really think about, and there are others we don’t see that
are governing the natural world like
friction or gravity. The page numbers were a great place to highlight this. By making them different
mathematical equations and expressions, my goal was to show that no matter how difficult the math
might look, it’s just a number.
Every book has page numbers that serve as a way to
reference and communicate information. They are something we often ignore. In Marco the Great you
can’t miss the strange mix of letters
and numbers taking over the bottom of each page and they differ depending on
the chapter and the concept we are
talking about. This provided both a fun and novel way for students to check their understanding and an
opportunity to normalize complicated notation
and make it more approachable. It had the added benefit of highlighting
the unseen numbers we take for
granted.
Where do you get inspiration for your stories?
The students! There is nothing better than when my crazy
stories, antics, and analogies not only
make students laugh, smile, and become more engaged, but turn a challenging or
tricky concept into something they more
easily understand. It is simply magical.
What makes your book different from what’s out
there?
One of the reasons I finally took the terrifying leap to
publish was because there wasn’t
anything on the market. I am certainly a bibliophile and I searched and
searched and came up empty. There are
books that are math adjacent, but I found these never dug deep enough into the actual concepts. Books that did dig deep
were textbooks or technical writing that were
hard to read and felt like I had to first translate them into English
and then try to understand what they
were attempting to explain. Marco the
Great presents rigorous mathematics in a
way that is fun to read and much easier
to comprehend. It uses the power of storytelling to provide a fresh perspective that I believe is so
needed in today’s classrooms.
What
advice would you give budding writers?
Write. Just write. I struggle still with wanting it to be
perfect and staring at the screen waiting
for the ideal words to flow out. It doesn’t happen. Writing is a
process. I force myself to start typing
and keep typing. Then, as the story begins to unfold, I go back and chisel it
into the picture I want the readers to
see. I’ve heard people say first drafts are always horrible. I don’t see it
that way. The first draft is preparing your canvas, it is a necessary and an
important step and it is okay if you
hate parts of it. Just like in math, mistakes tell us so much more than
getting it ’right’ the first time. Once
you know what doesn’t work, it is so much easier to understand what will.
If you could put yourself as a character in your book, who would
you be?
Every character has a bit of me. Even when the inspiration
is from someone else like my parents or
grandparents, it is something vital, something that stuck and became a part of
who I am. Anyone who knows me would
probably say I’d be Maggie, but I’d love to live out Marco’s adventure. It is so much fun and he has such
a unique perspective.
Do you have another profession besides writing?
My technical profession is educator and instructional
designer. I have spent years designing
and developing courses and curricular material which made the transition
to writing a bit easier. A huge part of
my educational philosophy is that learning should be fun. Most of my days are spent coding math games. I think
that learning through play is the absolute best way to master new concepts.
The norm is for instructional designers to stay out of the
classroom. I always felt this was a huge
mistake. How can I design a strong and engaging curriculum if I am so
removed from the students using it? So,
throughout the years I have always kept one foot in the classroom. Not only does this bring me so much joy, energy,
and purpose, it helps me to continue to
understand the demographics I am designing for and what is important to
them.
How long have you been writing?
I’d argue that writing and communicating is the essence of
the human experience, meaning I’ve been
writing for over thirty years! I’ve always loved writing. When I was younger, I
was published in a book of poetry and
have continued writing creatively in my spare time but haven’t shared anything outside of my family
or college professors. My career took me to more technical writing for academic journals, but Marco the Great is my
first attempt at mixing creative writing
with technical ideas. I have to say it is so much more fun!
Do you ever get writer’s block?
What helps you overcome it?
For me, I know what I need to write, I am trying to
communicate some mathematical idea. So writer’s block is generally not knowing
how to put the ideas on paper; how to get it out of my head and into something that is easily
understandable and relatable. If I am in need of inspiration I often read (sometimes my own
story) or watch television or a movie. I love to see storytelling in action and in different
forms. It is a great way for me to allow my subconscious to sort through things. I also just write. Even
if it is horrible and no one will ever read it because it is going straight in the trash, it tells me
what doesn’t work. Once I know that, it is much easier to find what will.
What is your next project?
I am very excited for the next book in the Marco the Great
series: Marco the Great and the
Mystery of Phaseville. It focuses
on Algebra concepts such as functions and graphing. I am in love with the story and can’t wait to get
everything just right.
What is the last great book you’ve read?
Every book is a great book to me. Every book has something
that is special. I am always in the
process of reading four or five new books while also circling back to
some of my favorites. I am currently
reading The Magicians, which I am enjoying but have found that
ever since writing a book I have become
much more nitpicky. It’s almost like I read with an editing eye rather
than
for enjoyment. I am a big fan of the Dan Brown books
because you can learn so much in his
stories. It’s not only an adventure. You learn about geography,
architecture, there is so much knowledge
built into every page. I recently revisited
The Princess Bride for the fifth or sixth time, this time reading it out loud to
my young sons. I also re-started one of my favorite books of all time, Ender’s Game, and started rereading Dune to prepare for the movies.
What is a favorite compliment you have received on your writing?
Anytime I hear a student say they enjoyed it; it is worth
it. I wrote Marco the Great for the
students, to help all students excel and hopefully enjoy math. Advanced
learners can learn more complex topics
not covered in their grade in a relatable way and students who struggled with an idea have a new perspective that
clicks and makes sense. Anytime I can help a child grow in math is a huge win.
If your book were made into a move, who would star in the leading
role?
I have been asked this before and thought about it a lot.
As far as Marco, I am not familiar
enough with the 10–13-year-old actor scene. However, I do have a very
clear picture of Mr. Pikake and think
Peter Capaldi would play the character perfectly. While I don’t know who would play Maggie, I do see a lot of
similarities with the character Dani from the first Hocus
Pocus
film. Someone who is smart, and spunky, and brave would be necessary to pull
off Maggie just right.
What are the biggest rewards and challenges with writing Marco the Great?
The biggest reward is helping students to not fear numbers;
to see their importance, and to feel
more confident in learning and doing mathematics. There is so much talk about
how math is useless, we don’t use what
we learn in our daily lives. But I see it differently, I see math everywhere I look. Learning math is the
process of making sense of the world around us,
optimization, logic, engineering, it’s everything. If I can help a
student to see, understand, and
appreciate math, it is all worth it.
What authors inspired you to write?
All of them. It isn’t easy. It’s hard to put your work out
into the world and open it up to ridicule
and scorn and opinions. I respect every single author who had a dream, an idea, a
new perspective and was brave enough to
share a little piece of their heart and a little piece of themselves with the world.
On Rituals:
Where do you write?
I love the sun. It is a ball of energy. It gives me energy.
We had a sunroom built off the side of
our house which is my office. I am surrounded by nature; I can see the
trees and hear the birds and watch the
squirrels and it inspires me.
Do you write every day?
When I am working on a project, yes. Maybe I take off for a
holiday, but every other day, including
weekends, I try to either get something new down or make something I
previously wrote better.
In today’s tech savvy world,
most writers use a computer or laptop. Have you ever written parts of your book on paper?
Like most, I write on my computer. However, I need to read
on paper. I need to see how the words
fill the page. Once I get a rough draft, I print it and mark it up before going
back to make the changes digitally.
As
a mom, how do you balance your time?
My kids inspire me. I watch how my teenagers respond to
situations, funny things they say, and
all of that goes into the story in some way. They help me a lot. I’ll
read a passage and watch their reaction.
When they smile or can’t help but let out a chuckle it tells me ‘that’s a
good line’.
My husband is also a huge help. We both work from home and
homeschool. We split things up. The kids
rotate coming out into my office (my son is here with me now working on his
own math homework) and then back inside.
Everything is a balancing act, and I am sure I fail at it. But that’s okay. I try to do better every day
and am so thankful for all the time I get with my kids.
Fun Stuff:
If you were stuck on a deserted island, which 3 books would you
want with you?
Long ones haha. Maybe Dune. I love Ender’s Game. Certainly a deep story that you can
tear apart and learn or discover
something new each time. Marco is like that. There is so much in between every line and hidden in the story.
There are symmetries between the characters and
even the word choice. When you get to the end, if you read it all over
again you will find new things. I love
books like that! I guess the third book would have to be Marco the Great.
Any hobbies?
I guess I’d say crochet. I think it is making a comeback,
but I got into it for a very special
reason. My grandmother made beautiful blankets. She made one for each of
my children, her great grandbabies. She
passed away when my third child was 6 months old. When we found out we were expecting #4, I knew I had to
carry the torch. I taught myself and got a little carried away. Not only did I make my kids
their baby blankets, I made hats, and little animals and baby carrying bags. I
just fell in love with it. I could feel her with me in every stitch.
What TV series are you currently binge watching?
I love television and movies. I never passively watch
anything. I learn something from
everything I watch. Right now, we are switching back and forth between Stargate Atlantis (which I happened to find and I think it is
crazy I have never seen it) and Psych
(a favorite we have watched many times).
Before that it was Fringe and Battlestar
Galactica. In fact, readers will find some Battlestar Galactica references in my new book which actually
arose out of a brainstorm with my
daughter!
Author
Bio:
SK Bennett
is an award-winning educator, instructional designer, mathematician, and
homeschool mom of five. She spent years designing courses for top companies and
institutions before deciding it was time to embrace her belief that learning
should be fun and math should never be all about memorization and rote
procedures. Inspired by her favorite stories, she set out to create Marco's
world - where learning is an adventure and math is never ever boring.
Website: https://www.mathbait.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mathbait
Author
Marketing Experts:
Twitter: @Bookgal
Instagram: @therealbookgal
Amazon: https://bit.ly/3RhtSZz
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/135699300-marco-the-great-and-the-history-of-numberville
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