# Leo + Lea - Hardcover

by **Monica Wesolowska** (Author), **Kenard Pak** (Illustrator)

**A beautiful celebration of friendship, math, and art that honors different ways of seeing and being in the world.**

"The mathematical wonder is creatively incorporated." -- _Kirkus Reviews_

"It all adds up to an inventive, affecting story." -- _Publishers Weekly_

One

boy

loves numbers.

Everywhere he looks

he sees things to count.

His classmates don't understand counting as he does.

A new girl loves patterns.

Could she be

a friend

for

Leo?

This beautiful friendship story, inspired by the Fibonacci sequence and cleverly constructed using its mathematical pattern, celebrates our differences, as well as how math connects us to one another.

Young readers will love counting the number of words per page and discovering how they echo the Fibonacci Sequence, a mathematical series in which each number is the sum of the previous two: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, and so on to infinity! Text and art are masterfully conceived and constructed to reflect Leo's love of numbers. Even the color scheme in the striking illustrations follows a mathematical progression, bringing an underlying order and tranquility to the story. The mesmerizing symmetry of this fascinating and compulsively playable game of addition can also be found in the natural world and is an intriguing metaphor for the interconnectedness of all things.

### Author Biography

Monica Wesolowska was inspired by a math-loving child to base the words of this story on a math pattern. Counting as she wrote, she followed the Fibonacci sequence into a story of friendship and learned how math connects us all. She is the author of the memoir _Holding Silvan: A Brief Life_, named a Best Book of 2013 by _The Boston Globe_ and _Library Journal_. Her essays and short stories have appeared in _The New York Times_, _The San Francisco Chronicle_, _Literary Mama_, _The Carolina Quarterly_, and _Best New American Voices_. She's a graduate of Reed College and teaches Creative Writing at the University of California Extension. Monica lives with her family in Berkeley, California. You can learn more about her work at monicawesolowska.com.  
Kenard Pak used colors and shapes based on the Fibonacci sequence to create a visual story of a budding friendship that opens with a simple, airy room and blossoms into a full, lush landscape. He is the author and illustrator of _Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn,_ and _Goodbye Autumn, Hello Winter_, winner of the 2018 SCBWI Golden Kite Award for Illustration. He is also the illustrator of several picture books including _Ten Ways to Hear Snow_ by Cathy Camper, _Have You Heard the Nesting Bird?_ by Rita Gray, and _The Fog_ by Kyo Maclear, which was a _Kirkus Reviews_ Best Book of the Year. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, their young daughter, and three cats. You can learn more about his work at pandagun.com.

**Number of Pages:** 40

**Dimensions:** 0.47 x 11.26 x 9.36 IN

**Illustrated:** Yes

**Publication Date:** August 02, 2022

## Details

- **Price:** 18.99 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 18.99 USD | In stock |

## Images

- Leo + Lea - Hardcover

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