Story Length approx 3500 words

Suitable for young children, and older children with learning difficulties.


The Numberland Tales is a series of stories featuring a boy called Danny Starbright who has difficulty with multiplication. He has some exciting, and sometimes amusing adventures, during the course of which, he learns how multiplication works, and so finally understands and learns the times tables.

The stories are appropriate to the age at which children learn a particular times table, and suitable for their reading age.

Cakes and Butterflies is the second of the series in which, aided by a funny old man, several bright butterflies, and some exotic multiplying cup cakes, Danny has an exciting and amusing adventure, during which he learns the five times table without actually having to try.

Numbers are abstract and can be difficult for some children, but by using stories with strong visual images, a visual connection to the numbers is made that children can more easily remember. The right brain hemisphere processes the visual images, whilst the left brain processes the more abstract language and numbers, and by connecting the two, children can more easily take the tables on board.

That’s the theory, but let’s not forget the fun element. These stories are truly engaging and Cakes and Butterflies is a delightful tale in its own right that children will enjoy hearing even when they know the five times table backwards.

The Numberland Tales have been used by teachers, parents, and home educators the world over, to entertain and help their children to understand the principles and usefulness of learning to multiply.

Cakes and Butterflies is the first part of a two part adventure. In this, the first part, Danny learns the five times table. In the second part, The Tentown Adventure, Danny learns the ten times table, and a whole lot more about how useful multiplication can be.

And the title is deliberately nothing to do with numbers or multiplication – this is a story that happens to be about tables



"I am a homeschooling mom of 3 (ages 8,9 and 10), and I found your stories on the internet after much searching for a way to help my 9-year-old daughter learn multiplication. She just didn't "get it" until we started reading your stories. She and her younger brother love them. It makes learning times tables fun. So, a big, gigantic thank you from me and my kids.”

Christina Florizone, Canada

Robert Stanek’s Bugville Critters recommended by / featured in...
+ Parenting Magazine (2008)
+ The Children’s Bookshelf (Publisher’s Weekly) (2007, 2008)
+ Children’s Writer (2007)
+ Foreword Magazine (2007)
+ The Wall Street Journal (2006)
+ School Library Journal (2008, 2009)
+ Library Journal (2008, 2009)
Read letters to Buster from kids all over the world at http://www.bugvillecritters.com/letters.htm

352 pages. Discover the Math & Reading Flashcard Series. Flash cards with attitude and critters. Use this book to learn essential multiplication facts. This book focuses on multiplication facts for multiplying the numbers 1 to 12 by whole numbers up to 12. Complete with 156 multiplication facts.

The Tentown Adventure – A Story about Learning Ten Times Tables
Formerly titled – ‘The Mad Queen of Tentown’

Suitable for young readers and reading by parents and teachers for children 5 years and older, plus older children with numeracy and learning difficulties.
This is a story in which the hero Danny learns more about the principles of multiplication and discovers the ten times table, but this is such a fun adventure that children will hardly notice that it is educational.

In The Tentown Adventure, Danny is captured by Slightly Scary Queen, who on discovering that he is able to multiply and knows the two times and five times tables, decides that he must be a spy. He is handed over to her royal guards, Fatweasel and Rotbelly, who at first are a bit scary too, but in the end turn out to be a pair of buffoons. He meets the Castle treasurer who teaches Danny the principles and methods of multiplication within the context of the ten times tables. The Slightly Scary Queen returns, but Danny is able to use the ten times tables to help him escape and return home safely.

Danny provides children with a positive role model in the form of a child who has difficulties with multiplication, but overcomes them and learns that being able to multiply is simple and is empowering, and has uses beyond the classroom.
This story is silly, exciting, entertaining, funny, and even a teeny bit scary. It features Queen Beatrice whose son talks to vegetables, generally revolting castle guards, Fatweasel and Rotbelly, subtle reminders about healthy eating, and a whole lot more that children will love so much that they won’t realise they are learning as the story unfolds.

This is the third story in the series Numberland Tales. In the previous stories Danny has learned the Two Times Table in ‘Ice Cream and Spiders’ and in ‘Cakes and Butterflies’ he has learned the Five Times Table. All stories in the series are intended to be appropriate to the age at which children learn a particular times table, however this can vary with some children, and this story is intended to be read to children who have not reached a suitable stage in literacy.


The stories have been used by teachers, parents, and home educators the world over, to entertain and help their children to understand the principles and usefulness of learning to multiply numbers.

“I was inspired by your 2x tables story and my class really enjoyed it and grasped the concept well.”

Lisa Quattrocchi, Teacher, Belvue School, Australia


"I am a homeschooling mom of 3 (ages 8 ,9 and 10), and I found your stories on the internet after much searching for a way to help my 9-year-old daughter learn multiplication. She just didn't "get it" until we started reading your stories. She and her younger brother love them. It makes learning times tables fun. So, a big, gigantic thank you from me and my kids.”

Christina Florizone, Canada