Why Publishers Should Help Kids Combat Math Anxiety

By Jason Boog 

Bedtime Math founder Laura Overdeck thinks publishers need to help kids cope with math anxiety to fix an “emergency” situation. She’s created a website, an app and a new book dedicated to making math more enjoyable for young children: Bedtime Math: A Fun Excuse To Stay Up Late.

While researching her “Allergic to Algebra” TEDx talk (embedded above), Overdeck discovered that out of the Top 100 books for kids on Amazon, 27 were about the learning the ABCs but only 9 were about learning the 123s. She explained in a telephone interview:

I think there are some books out there that make math fun for kids. Those books just aren’t making it into the bestsellers or the high rankings on Amazon. This is something I’m keenly interested in. Why are those books not bubbling up to the top? Some of it is publishers need to be open to fun math books and understand that this is so important.

Overdeck created a chart (embedded below) showing how the top ABC books have fun titles while the number-focused books were all workbooks. The Bedtime Math author concluded:

To publishers, I would say be open to fun math books and promote them. Let’s get parents more aware of the fact that there are really cute math books out there. Fun books. It doesnt’ have to all be workbooks. We can do better than that.

Publishers can play a part by taking this on as a movement and I think it will be profitable for them. People are hungry for this. The preview copies I’m sending around are getting great feedback. People are open to this, they are ready for it. There are other books out there that serve the same mission. We just got to make parents aware of them.