No. It is a 30 page picture book: a short story, then one bright double page for each table, with the whole table on a blackboard and the tricks beside it. The practice happens in the game, ten levels for each table, and on our free worksheets and flash cards if you want paper too.

Which tables are in it? Is the 12 times table?

The tables from 2 to 11. The 12s are not in the book, and the game has no 12 either. If your school asks for the 12s, we have a free page for them.

7 to 10, the years children learn their tables: 2nd to 4th grade in the US, Year 2 to Year 4 in the UK.

My child finds the 7s and 8s hard. Will this help?

That is what the order is for. The book starts with the 10s, 5s and 2s, and every answer a child already knows from an earlier table is printed in orange. By the 7s, 6 of the ten answers are already known, and by the 9s only 9 × 9 is new. The 8s are the 4s doubled, and six times eight is forty-eight because it rhymes.

Do we need a phone or tablet?

Not to read it: the tables and the tricks are on paper. The game runs in the browser of a phone, a tablet or a computer. The dragons step into your room on an iPhone, an iPad, or an Android phone or tablet with ARCore. There is no app to install and no account to make.

What does the book open that the website doesn't?

Every table page has a QR code. Scan it once and that table's levels 6 to 10 open on that phone or tablet, with the fire padlock and the button that brings the dragon into your room. Levels 1 to 5 of every table, and the whole 10 times table, are free on our site for everyone.

Is anything about my child kept or sent?

No. There is no account. What your child has finished is kept on your own phone, tablet or computer, and nothing about your child is sent to us. The game has no ads.

For a 7 to 9 year old starting the tables, yes: a paperback with a story, ten dragons and a game, $14.90 on Amazon. It is a short book, 30 pages, so it is a way into the tables, not a year of practice.

Times Tables and DragonBuddies front cover: ten little dragons in the grass under a big rainbow title — Front cover

A times tables book by Katia Sunn

Times Tables and DragonBuddiesMultiplication tricks and a dragon game for every table

Name: Times Tables and DragonBuddies
Price: 14.90 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Katia Sunn
ISBN: 979-8160559711

Ten little dragons are locked in cages. Learn a table, and one of them comes out.

The tables from 2 to 11, easy ones first
A dragon for every table
100 game levels on a phone or tablet

Ages: 7 to 10
Pages: 30
Format: Paperback · 8.5 × 8.5 in

Buy on Amazon · $14.90 Play the 10s, free Look inside

The story

Ten dragons in cages, and a cat who wants them back.

Renata the cat grew up fast, and it was time to learn her tables. So she traveled to a faraway land to find the DragonBuddies, the dragons who made up tricks and games to teach children the multiplication tables. She found storms and wind, and no dragons at all. Then a swallow sang her what had happened.

Lazy Ladon, a great old dragon who hates math, had locked every DragonBuddy away. He wants every child to forget the times tables. There is only one way to open the cages: learn the tables, one by one.

Every table has its own dragon, named after a Greek mathematician. Clid guards the 10s, Hypatia guards the 8s, Archie guards the 11s. And somewhere in the book, an eleventh dragon is hiding.

From the back cover

Ten little dragons need your help!

Lazy Ladon, a grumpy old dragon who hates math, has locked away all the DragonBuddies. He wants every child to forget the times tables! Renata the cat knows the only way to set her friends free: learn the tables, one by one.

Katia Sunn

How the book teaches

Fewer answers to learn than it looks.

The easy tables first
The book does not go 2, 3, 4. It starts with 10, 5, 2, then 4, 8, 7, 3, 6, 9 and 11. Each table leans on one before it: the 4s are the 2s doubled, the 8s are the 4s doubled.
Orange means you know it
Every answer a child has already met in an earlier table is printed in orange, so each new table has fewer new answers in it. By the 9s, only one is new: 9 × 9.
Two stars in every table
The number times itself and the number times 5. Learn those two first, and the rest of the table falls in between.

The whole method is free to read on how to learn the times tables, and every table has a free page with its first trick. The book has all the tricks, one bright double page per table.

Who is in the cages

Ten DragonBuddies, one for every table.

Hypatia, the dragon of the 8 times table

And then the game

A game for every table, on a phone or tablet.

Every table has a QR code. Scan it with a phone or tablet camera and that table's game opens in the browser: a cube puzzle where every level is one answer, read out loud when you solve it. Ten levels for each table, 100 in all.

Five levels and a number padlock open the cage. The other five, from the book, give the dragon its fire back. Then it steps off the screen and into your room.

Play the 10 times table, free See all ten cages

Look inside

Four double pages from the book.

Real pages from the book. On the left page of every table there is a code that opens its game. We covered it here: it belongs to the book.

The story begins: Renata the cat and Lazy Ladon.
The 10 times table, the first one in the book.
The 8 times table: the 4s doubled, and six times eight rhymes.
The 9 times table, with the finger trick.

Buy on Amazon · $14.90Paperback, 30 pages, 8.5 by 8.5 inches, full color.

Before you choose

Is it the right times tables book for your child?

What parents ask, answered straight. Anything else? Write to us, one of us answers.

Is it a workbook?: No. It is a 30 page picture book: a short story, then one bright double page for each table, with the whole table on a blackboard and the tricks beside it. The practice happens in the game, ten levels for each table, and on our free worksheets and flash cards if you want paper too.
Which tables are in it? Is the 12 times table?: The tables from 2 to 11. The 12s are not in the book, and the game has no 12 either. If your school asks for the 12s, we have a free page for them.
What age is it for?: 7 to 10, the years children learn their tables: 2nd to 4th grade in the US, Year 2 to Year 4 in the UK.
My child finds the 7s and 8s hard. Will this help?: That is what the order is for. The book starts with the 10s, 5s and 2s, and every answer a child already knows from an earlier table is printed in orange. By the 7s, 6 of the ten answers are already known, and by the 9s only 9 × 9 is new. The 8s are the 4s doubled, and six times eight is forty-eight because it rhymes.
Do we need a phone or tablet?: Not to read it: the tables and the tricks are on paper. The game runs in the browser of a phone, a tablet or a computer. The dragons step into your room on an iPhone, an iPad, or an Android phone or tablet with ARCore. There is no app to install and no account to make.
What does the book open that the website doesn't?: Every table page has a QR code. Scan it once and that table's levels 6 to 10 open on that phone or tablet, with the fire padlock and the button that brings the dragon into your room. Levels 1 to 5 of every table, and the whole 10 times table, are free on our site for everyone.
Is anything about my child kept or sent?: No. There is no account. What your child has finished is kept on your own phone, tablet or computer, and nothing about your child is sent to us. The game has no ads.
Is it a good gift?: For a 7 to 9 year old starting the tables, yes: a paperback with a story, ten dragons and a game, $14.90 on Amazon. It is a short book, 30 pages, so it is a way into the tables, not a year of practice.

Not sure it's the one? We keep a list of times tables books for ages 7 to 10, other publishers' books included: memory methods, picture books and workbooks, with which tables each one covers and how much practice it asks for.