Literature is viewed as a natural "thinking" medium to help children experience learning in a contextual setting (Ward 2005). Though, as Draper (2002) contended, mathematics is a subject that children are often unable to recognize as useful in their lives, literature with mathematical components may be able to address this concern. Combining mathematical thinking skills with literature may be a useful means to explore mathematical reasoning and literacy development (Draper 2002; Ruiz, Thornton, and Cuero 2010). Designing problem-based curriculum can be conceptually challenging. One good starting place can be to design problem-based mathematics inquiry using a narrative, storytelling technique. The premise of the approach described in this article is that authoring narrative storybook literature provides an accessible and positive vehicle for teachers and students to learn to express mathematical constructs. A sample book is used to describe the approach in detail and to demonstrate how to create a children's book with a problem-based component embedded within the storyline. In addition to describing the strategy, the authors provide a framework to implement mathematical, storybook narratives in a preservice teacher education class for use in the school setting with students as the mathematical problem solvers. (Contains 2 figures.)