math

The Boy Who Dreamed of Infinity by Amy Alznauer

| Tasha

The Boy Who Dreamed of Infinity by Amy Alznauer

The Boy Who Dreamed of Infinity: A Tale of the Genius Ramanujan by Amy Alznauer, illustrated by Daniel Miyares (9780763690489)

This is the story of an amazing mathematical genius who was born in India in 1887. He sees math everywhere, contemplating what small and big actually meant. When he started school, the teacher was not interested in his questions, so Ramanujan got bored and tried to sneak away to think his own thoughts. He wondered about the infinity possible in ordinary objects like mango that can be sliced again and again. Doing sums at school, he figured out the sums inside the sums they were doing, once again breaking things down. As he grows up, he reinvents mathematics, working from college textbooks and solving all of the problems. Still, he is just an unknown person in India, how can he find someone who understands what he is doing?

The joy of discovering Ramanujan’s math is that even for children or those who are not mathematically inclined, his theories resonate and encourage everyone to start thinking beyond the strictness of school math. Alznauer pays homage to this great genius, showing how he grew up, how he thought and how he was misunderstood for a very long time until being discovered by mathematicians in England.

The art is done in ink that flows at times like watercolors. Miyares captures the glow of invention, the heat of imagination in his illustrations. He also shows the solitude of Ramanujan in a captivating way.

Rich and fascinating, this picture book biography opens new worlds of mathematics to its readers. Appropriate for ages 6-9.

Reviewed from e-galley provided by Candlewick.

2019 Mathical Award Winners

| Tasha

The Mathical Book Prize is given annually to the outstanding fiction and nonfiction for youth ages 2-18. The prize is selected by a committee of PreK-12 teachers, librarians, mathematicians, and early childhood experts. Here are the 2019 winners and honor books for each age category:

WINNER PRE-K

Crash! Boom! A Math Tale by Robie H. Harris, illustrated by Chris Chatterton

 

WINNER GRADES K-2

Nothing Stopped Sophie: The Story of Unshakable Mathematician Sophie Germain by Cheryl Bardoe, illustrated by Barbara McClintock

 

WINNER GRADES 3-5

The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl by Stacy McAnulty

 

WINNER GRADES 6-8

To the Moon! The True Story of the American Heroes on the Apollo 8 Spaceship by Jeffrey Kluger and Ruby Shamir

 

HONOR BOOKS PRE-K

 

Press Here by Hervé Tullet

100 Bugs! A Counting Book by Kate Narita

 

HONOR BOOKS GRADES K-2

3×4 by Ivan Brunetti

Counting on Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Saved Apollo 13 by Helaine Becker

The Girl with a Mind for Math: The Story of Raye Montague by Julia Finley Mosca

When Sophie Thinks She Can’t by Molly Bang

 

HONOR BOOKS GRADES 3-5

Animals by the Numbers: A Book of Infographics by Steve Jenkins

Hidden Women: The African-American Mathematicians of NASA Who Helped America Win the Space Race by Rebecca Rissman

 

HONOR BOOK GRADES 6-8

If You Find This by Matthew Baker

 

HONOR BOOK GRADES 9-12

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Review: 3 x 4 by Ivan Brunetti

| Tasha

3 x 4 by Ivan Brunetti

3 x 4 by Ivan Brunetti (9781943145348)

This clever picture book mixes art and math. A teacher assigns the class to draw twelve things but in sets. The class asks what the sets could be and the book quickly reviews the different ways of multiplying to get to twelve. It is done in a way that is friendly and part of the story. The children all go home and look for sets to draw. Annemarie struggles to figure out what to draw. It could be different cars, but there are too many types. Other children quickly figure theirs out: sports items, shapes, fruit, dogs, houses, monsters, trees and more. Annemarie is inspired by her own house full of musical instruments. When the pictures are revealed at school, each child has done a unique interpretation of the assignment and readers have learned far more about sets and multiplication than they will realize.

Brunetti is an art teacher who assigns this type of challenge to his college students but in a much more complicated way. This simple version makes for an interesting read, offering all sorts of ways to meet the challenge. Each child takes inspiration from their own family and home, making it very personal. Brunetti includes diverse children throughout the story with his round-headed toy-like people filling the page.

Add this one to your collection for a math win. Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy provided by Toon Books.

 

Mathical Book Prizes

| Tasha

The Children’s Book Council and Mathematical Science Research Institute have awarded the first Mathical: Books for Kids from Tots to Teens book prizes for books that “foster a love and curiosity for math.”  Here are the four winners, one in each age category.

PRE-K

Have You Seen My Dragon?

Have You Seen My Dragon? by Steve Light

 

K-2

One Big Pair of Underwear

One Big Pair of Underwear by Laura Gehl

 

GRADES 3-5 and 6-8

Really Big Numbers

Really Big Numbers by Richard Even Schwartz

 

GRADES 9-12

Nearly Gone (Nearly Gone, #1)

Nearly Gone by Elle Cosimano

Review: Ten Eggs in a Nest by Marilyn Sadler

| Tasha

ten eggs in a nest

Ten Eggs in a Nest by Marilyn Sadler, illustrated by Michael Fleming

Released January 28, 2014.

Gwen the Hen laid eggs and Red Rooster was very excited to be a father.  Gwen refused to let him count the eggs before they hatched because it was bad luck.  So Red just had to wait.  When one egg hatched, he marched off to the market to buy the new chick one worm.  But when he returned home, there were two more new chicks!  He hurried back to the market after adding 1+2.  Then when he returned there were three more chicks.  1+2+3=6 newly hatched chicks and off Red hurried.  I bet you can guess what happened next!

This beginning reader nicely mixes counting and addition into the story.  Young readers will enjoy the bustling pace of the book and the tension of what Red will find upon his return to the nest.  The entire book has a warmth and sense of community that is tangible.  Simple text includes lots of numbers and remains simple for new readers throughout.

Fleming’s art is cartoon-like and very child friendly.  The colors pop on the white backgrounds, especially Red who is really a rainbow of colors including orange, purple and blue.  The oval chicks are bouncy and cute as can be. 

To sum it up, this is a great “addition” to new reader collections.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from digital galley received from Edelweiss and Random House.

Review: Lifetime by Lola M. Schaefer

| Tasha

lifetime

Lifetime: The Amazing Numbers in Animal Lives by Lola M. Schaefer

Take a unique look at what animals will do in a single lifetime in this book that combines counting, math and fascinating scientific facts.  The book focuses on how many times a single animal will do a behavior during their life.  The facts are based on estimations and opens with a description of how the numbers were figured out and explaining that each individual animal will be different than the estimate.  The book opens with one spider’s egg sac, the sole one she will create in a lifetime.  It then goes to the ten antlers that a caribou will grow and shed and moves on by tens.  The book ends with one thousand tiny baby seahorses, the number a single male seahorse will carry and birth. 

This is a spectacular way to introduce averages to children and estimation.  It is a celebration of the information that mathematics can provide to us about nature.  Schaefer has selected a wide variety of animals and intriguing facts about each of them.  Readers can find more in-depth information on the animals at the back of the book.  They will also find more information on averages and math there. 

Schaefer’s art adds to the appeal of this book.  Her illustrations have a boldness to them, a graphic quality that really works.  They are flat and vibrant, clearly laying items on the page for counting.  The book is a joy to page through since each page offers a new animal, a new habitat to see.

One of the most visually stimulating and smart concepts for a nonfiction picture book, this one is sure to beat the averages and be read more than once.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from Chronicle Books.

Review: The Boy Who Loved Math by Deborah Heiligman

| Tasha

boy who loved math

The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos by Deborah Heiligman, illustrated by LeUyen Pham

Paul Erdos grew up loving math from a very young age.  Growing up in Budapest, Hungary, Paul loved to think about numbers.  Unfortunately, he didn’t love school with all of its rules, so he was homeschooled by Fraulein, his nanny, until he went to high school.  Paul grew famous for his math but he still could not take care of himself and do his own laundry, cook his meals or even butter his own bread.  So when at age 21 he was invited to go to England to work on his math, he was worried about whether he could do it.  It turned out that buttering bread was not that difficult and that he would follow his own sort of lifestyle that ignored the rules.  So he traveled and did math around the world, staying with fellow mathematicians and relying on them to take care of him and his laundry and his meals.  He was the furthest thing from a stereotypical solitary mathematician to the point that people now have an “Erdos number” that shows how closely they worked with the amazing mathematician Paul Erdos.

This is such a wonderful biography.  It is a breath of fresh air in so many ways.  First, it plays against the stereotype of introverted and shy mathematicians working in solitude on formulas and instead shows Erdos as a vivacious man who didn’t just work with others, but depended on them.  Second, it shows mathematics as ever changing and new, something that is enticing and exciting.  Heiligman uses a light tone throughout as well as an obvious respect for Erdos’ brilliance and accomplishments. 

The illustrations share the same playful feel of the text.  Done in bold colors and dynamic motion, they have a humor that is welcome as well.  The look on Erdos’ face as he tries to butter his own bread for the first time is priceless and wonderful.  Children will be amazed that such a bright man would struggle with basic tasks.

A pleasure to read, this is an unusual biography that will make a welcome addition to nonfiction shelves.  Appropriate for ages 6-9.

Reviewed from library copy.

Review: Lemonade in Winter by Emily Jenkins

| Tasha

lemonade in winter

Lemonade in Winter by Emily Jenkins, illustrated by G. Brian Karas

Pauline is the one who looks out on a blustery winter day and thinks of running a lemonade stand.  Her little brother John-John immediately thinks it’s a great idea, but her parents are sure it won’t work.  So the kids set out to collect enough money to open their stand.  They dig in the couch, search pockets, and look in their piggy banks.  At the store they spend 24 quarters or six dollars on supplies.  They rush back home to make the lemonade, the limeade and the lemon-limeade and then out onto the street to set up their stand.  But no one comes.  Then they decide to start marketing their stand more, and surprisingly, there is a market for lemonade in the snow.

Jenkins has taken a picture book and inserted math in places that make sense of the story.  This is one book where the math really works, the counting of coins, the discounting of items, and the profits made.  It’s a book that can be read just for the cheery enjoyment of lemonade and snow too.  The writing is clever with the adults constantly warning the children that it won’t work and an ending that is realistic, warm and refreshing.

Karas’ illustrations are done in his signature style.  I enjoyed seeing children with brown skin in a story that is not about their brown skin at all, it’s just the way they look.  Karas’ art is lively and rich with small details.  The careful counting of the quarters at the grocery store is just one example of how he too skillfully melded in the math with the story.

A winning picture book with math at its heart, this is a story that will have you asking for some more lemonade on a winter’s day.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

Reviewed from copy received from Random House Children’s Books.

Review: How Many Jelly Beans? by Andrea Menotti

| Tasha

how many jelly beans

How Many Jelly Beans? by Andrea Menotti, illustrated by Yancey Labat

Released in April 2012.

I cannot count how many dismal number and math books I have read over the years.  I’m lucky enough to have a mathematical kid, but finding books that he would enjoy was painful.  Many math books are a lot more about concept than about being fun to read.  Well, not this one!  This one winningly mixes math with candy, so that even non-mathematical kids will give it a try.  Aiden and Emma are just like most siblings, they are trying to get more than each other.  So when Emma asks for 10 jelly beans, Aiden asks for 20!  And the number just keep climbing from there.  Soon, they are up to 500 jelly beans, which may be way too many to eat.  But how about 1000 or 5000 or 10,000 in a year?  The jelly beans get smaller and smaller until the final number of 1 million is reached only be an enormous fold-out page. 

This visual sweet treat will get children able to truly visualize what the difference between thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and a million are.  The art by Labat done in black and white with only the jelly beans for tantalizing color really works.  The focus is on the candy and the number.  Menotti nicely inserts division into the conversation too, when the children debate how many jelly beans they could eat in a year. 

I can see this over-sized book inspiring lots of counting, adding, dividing and multiplying in families, or it is also a very sweet book to share with your number-loving kid.  Appropriate for ages 5-7. 

An aside just for librarians, please don’t put this in the remoteness of the nonfiction section with your math books.  Let it enjoy being taken home as a yummy picture book with a jelly bean and math center.

Reviewed from copy received from Chronicle Books.