THE BARTON SERIESThe Barton Series was conceptualised and written with the primary objective of encouraging young students to appreciate how mathematics in used in the real world. The series explore mathematics through the creation of a model child, ‘Barton’ whose life experiences are captured through delightful, realistic and entertaining stories. The stories span just about all the activities in which young children participate in school and with their families during their young, juvenile, carefree and adventurous years.The authors believe that a major and poignant barrier to the learning, understanding and appreciation of mathematics is the inability of students to comprehend the language embedded in worded problems. The books therefore provide a novel vehicle to connect numeracy and literacy since, comprehension, most assuredly, is really the key to decoding the mathematics. And so, several visual props have been deliberately added in every story, to assist learners who may be challenged in word recognition. The series also aims at inculcating moral and ethical values as the stories are designed to encourage good behaviour and caring ways among young children. While many of the stories build on mathematics content, others focus on the process goals of mathematics such as critical thinking, problem solving and developing positive dispositions such as respect, perseverance and team spirit. Thus, mathematics becomes user friendly through this methodology that seeks to eliminate anxiety and fear for the discipline. Such negative experiences have prevented thousands of students from learning mathematics throughout their lives. The series appeals to the child’s curiosity and desire to have fun as they connect their life experiences to mathematics. The reader will experience meaningful encounters with mathematics and so appreciate its inherent beauty and efficacy in solving real life problems.These colourful and beautifully illustrated books will strongly complement not just the mathematics, but language arts and several other curriculum areas that are incorporated at the primary level in any education system.