How many book each read

Question

The girls in Miss Stanton's class were comparing the number of books they read. Alicia read 14 more books than Irene. Mary read 6 less books than Irene, but 9 more than Kathy. Alicia and Sarah together read 71 books. Jolene read 7 fewer books than Sarah, who read 41 books. Maybeth read twice as many books as Mary.

How many books did each girl read?

Answer 1

Hi Erica,

This is quite a multi-faceted problem to solve. In order to find the number of books each girl read, you must first list your facts. For example, the fact "Alicia read 14 more books than Irene" can be translated into the math sentence A = I + 14. Once you have all your facts listed in this fashion, If you know how many books one girl read, you can use this information to find out how many the other read. Since we know Sarah read 41 books, you must start by finding the number of books Jolene read, which is 7 fewer (41 - 7 = ?). Each time you find how many books one girl read, it helps you uncover the number of books another girl read.