Mr. Hall surveys his class to find out how many people walk, take the bus, or take a car to get to school. Watch as he makes a circle graph with his data. K-Gr 2-These basic books provide step-by-step instructions for creating graphs. Nelson features a set of characters with a task to accomplish. For example, in Picture Graph, three children "wanted to show how many apples they picked." The instructions are clearly written and the illustrations that support the creation of the graphs are helpful. The photos attempting to show the kids in real-life situations can look a bit staged. Circle Graph is the weakest of the set, as it is too simplistic; the data is too easily divided to give students a full understanding. Each title contains a spread that tests children's knowledge and another that gives them a recap of how to create the featured graph or more information. The questions require appropriate advanced math thinking and will challenge the youngest in the targeted age group. Overall, these books provide strong simple instructions and will give teachers solid supplemental material when teaching graphing. α(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. " This series is a wonderful addition to any primary classroom library. It is a step-by-step guide on how to make a number of types of graphs. The real-life pictures help students connect to the content of the books. Each book includes a detailed breakdown of how to begin making a graph. The books also contain bolded terms that are later explained in the glossary and identified in the index. This series is helpful in clarifying a topic that can be very helpful to early mathematics students. It is very difficult to find math books at such low levels that are comprehensible to young readers and learners. As such, this series is a rarity in its field. " ―starred, Library Media Connection , Journal "The Graph It! series from the First Step Nonfiction brand explains the basic components of graphs to probably the youngest set capable of grasping the concepts. Using big, clear photos on every page, with a simple line of text below, the authors take readers through every incremental step. In Let's Make a Bar Graph, we are introduced to Nan, a girl who 'wants to ask her classmates about their pets.' She tallies the answers with straight lines on paper ('The answers are her data') before drawing out the horizontal and vertical axes of her graph. Four pages are devoted to drawing the first shape―yes, it's very drawn out, but kids will appreciate it when Nan proudly displays her brightly colored graph before the class. Let's Make a Circle Graph takes on a considerably more complicated venture. It's kept as simple as possible: when Mr. Hall asks his 20 students how they get to school, 10 say 'bus,' 5 say 'car,' and 5 say 'walk.' Still, that results in one possible brain-burner: 'Five is one-fourth of 20.' Each title logically ends with questions that ask the reader to draw information from the very graph being discussed, making these great kickoff points to classroom discussion ." - -Booklist , Journal "These basic books provide step-by-step instructions for creating graphs. Nelson features a set of characters with a task to accomplish. For example, in Picture Graph , three children 'wanted to show how many apples they picked.' The instructions are clearly written and the illustrations that support the creation of the graphs are helpful. The photos attempting to show the kids in real-life situations can look a bit staged. Circle Graph is the weakest of the set, as it is too simplistic; the data is too easily divided to give students a full understanding. Each title contains a spread that tests children's knowledge and another that gives them a recap of how to create the featured graph or more information. The questions require appropriate advanced math thinking and will challenge the youngest in the targeted age group. Overall, these books provide strong simple instructions and will give teachers solid supplemental material when teaching graphing. " -- School Library Journal , Series Made Simple , Journal Robin Nelson's careers have always kept her surrounded by books―as an elementary teacher, working at a publishing company, and now working as a school library media specialist. But her favorite job is writing books for kids. She has written many nonfiction books for children. She lives with her family in Minneapolis.