Ryan Reed, a second grader at Hamilton Heights, has been telling stories for as far back as he can remember. His great-aunt, Theresa Morris, a 1988 graduate of Hamilton Heights, has been listening to those stories and taking notes. Lu Hubbell, also a Hamilton Heights graduate, is an award-winning student artist who loves to draw and paint.
What do these three have in common? They all played a part of bringing a series of children’s books to life.
Theresa Morris, the founder and CEO of MPASS Education, collaborated with her great-nephew on this project. Reed was blessed with an incredible imagination and gift of storytelling and Morris had the vision to transform those oral stories into written form. Together, they created The Monsters of Math, a series of interactive children’s books where a group of friends work together through everyday situations and learn how math skills help to inform their decisions. The math skills included throughout the books are relevant for second through fifth grade, and the stories include specific connections to social emotional learning, community, and citizenship.
Morris and Reed had the content but needed an illustrator. Morris reached out to administrators at Hamilton Heights High School for a recommendation for a student artist to illustrate the books.
This is where Lu Hubbell joins the party. Hubbell, who graduated in a semester early in December, was up to the challenge.
“Students have valuable skill sets at every age and this is an example of a fun and creative project to demonstrate just that,” Morris said of this positive and rewarding learning experience. “No matter what direction Ryan goes, he became a published author in the second grade. Lu became a published illustrator at age 18. It’s all about looking for opportunities for successes and achievements throughout the PreK to Post-Secondary education journey which can have a significant lifelong impact.”
The first of the three books, The Monsters of Math Plan a Party, has been printed and is available on Amazon. A special book launch and signing to meet the authors and illustrator is set for 7 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 21 at Hamilton Heights Elementary School’s Media Center on State Road 19. Enter through Door A. Here you can learn more about their unique stories and how these Huskies used their talents today to produce this new book series. Copies of this book will be available. The event is sponsored by the Hamilton Heights Educational Foundation.
The next two books in the series, The Monsters of Math Host of Fishing Derby and The Monsters of Math Go on a Hike, are expected to be available in the months ahead. The math skills and stories are intended to support parents, teachers, and students understand the importance of applying math skills within everyday decisions in grades 2 through 5. These books have been written to be read in any order.
About the Authors
Theresa Morris is the founder and CEO of MPASS Education. Prior to starting her own business, Morris was with Stanford University as a Mathematics Performance Assessment Developer at the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE).
A 1988 graduate of Hamilton Heights High School, she brings over 30 years of experience including classroom teaching, district administrator, and consultant for CTB, Smarter Balanced, Discovery Education, and College Board as an item architect, item writer, and author of performance tasks.
The focus of her recent work has been supporting state and district level development of high-quality performance assessment systems for the purposes of true accountability. She is a lead facilitator in supporting state and local educational networks in building balanced assessment systems that include the use of performance assessments.
Ryan Reed, a second grader at Hamilton Heights Elementary School, is a promising storyteller. From a young age, Reed’s tremendous creativity and imagination has fascinated family and friends with his stories of monsters and heroes.
Theresa Morris, fondly known as “Aunt T,” helped transform Reed’s stories into a series of short children’s books and educational resources for children and their families to enjoy.
About the Illustrator
Lu Hubbell, a December 2022 graduate of Hamilton Heights High School, is an award-winning student artist. Throughout middle and high school, Hubbell was active in art club and participated in a number of community art projects including helping to design and paint a building mural and crosswalk in Arcadia.
Hubbell is currently taking classes at Ivy Tech and plans to study graphic design and marketing in the fall to pursue a career in advertising and designing packaging and logos. The Monsters of Math Plan a Party is Hubbell’s first illustrated children’s book.