Cao Chong Weighs an Elephant

Summary of Book

Best STEM Books of 2018 for K-12 Selection by NSTA, ITEEA & CBC
Purdue University's 2018 Engineering Gift Guide
Winner of the 2018CALA Best Book Award, Best Juvenile Literature
Outstanding Science Trade Books Selection of 2018 by NSTA & CBC
Notable-Social-Studies books of 2018 selection by NCSS &CBC
A Mathical Honor Book of 2018 by MSRI, NCTM & CBC
Children's Book Council "Book Power" Showcase selection

How much does an elephant weigh? How do you know? How would you know if you didn t have a modern scale? Six-year-old Cao Chong, the most famous child prodigy in Chinese history, faced just this problem! Chong watches as the prime minister s most trusted and learned advisors debate different methods. The principal of buoyancy and a little bit of creative thinking help this boy come up with a solution.

This fictional story includes a 4-page For Creative Minds section in the back of the book and a 30-page cross-curricular Teaching Activity Guide online. Cao Chong Weighs an Elephant is vetted by experts and designed to encourage parental engagement. Its extensive back matter helps teachers with time-saving lesson ideas, provides extensions for science, math, and social studies units, and uses inquiry-based learning to help build critical thinking skills in young readers. The Spanish translation supports ELL and dual-language programs. The interactive ebook reads aloud in both English and Spanish with word highlighting and audio speed control to promote oral language skills, fluency, pronunciation, text engagement, and reading comprehension. Tap animals and other things that make noise to hear their sounds.

Author Biography

Songju Ma Daemicke grew up in Jilin, China, where she enjoyed listening to the stories her grandparents told. Songju moved to the United States in 1996. After obtaining a master's degree in computer science, she worked as a software engineer until her twin daughters were born. Songju has always excelled in math and has recently gravitated back to her early love of literature and stories. A Case of Sense is her debut picture book. Songju lives in Glenview, Illinois, with her husband and their daughters.

Illustrator Biography

In addition to Cash Kat, Christina Wald has illustrated Fibonacci Zoo, A Cool Summer Tail, A Warm Winter Tail, Habitat Spy, Little Red Bat, and Henry the Impatient Heron for Arbordale. She also enjoys illustrating a wide variety of toys, games, books, and magazines. From a book that featured hundreds of animals on each page (Look, Find, and Learn: Animals of the World) to games including the Star Wars role playing game series, every assignment covers something new and exciting. In recent years, she has illustrated tons of different animals for books and other publications. Christina enjoys the research aspect of such projects, saying that each new book is a fascinating new learning experience. She often integrates travel to research for her illustrations. She lives in Ohio with her husband and three cats.