Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources anyone have math book/story recommendations?

DS6 has read the Penrose books and the number devil book and finds some of the concepts too easy and wants something more. He has read so many math stories we feel like we are running out. I have heard about the murderous math books but I can't seem to find them anywhere around except for bulk packages on-line that are like $100. Any ideas or suggestions??

One book we especially loved was Malba Tahan's "The Man who Counted." Oh, and another favourite was Julia Diggins's "String, Straightedge, and Shadow," although that is more history and less story.

Julie Brennan has a huge list of math readers here:

http://www.livingmath.net/ReadersbyConcept/tabid/268/Default.aspx


peace
minnie

Some (but not all) of the Murderous Maths are available used through Amazon. (http://www.amazon.com/Kjartan-Poskitt/e/B001HCU8N4/) $3.99 shipping plus a few cents in book cost, in most cases. (Ebay has them as well - searching on the author's name got me better results.)

If you're looking for Murderous Maths, I'd suggest checking with Ray at http://www.horriblebooks.com/

That's where we picked up the Murderous Maths and Horrible Science, etc... books.

Ray is great!

There are some other good suggestions here:
http://www.tanyakhovanova.com/BookReviews/bookrevs.html

and here:
http://www.gnarlymath.com/gnarbook.html

My son also enjoyed Number Devil. I would HIGHLY recommend the Murderous Math Series for the kid who is past all of the arithmetic, but not quite ready for Algebra. They are British and the British sense of humor is reflected in the books which my son loved! I tried for months and could not find them used so I broke down and bought the set. I have to say though that my DS8 read the set in one week and continually goes back to them just for fun. I would also recommend the book, Phantom Tollboth.
The game, Equate is also good.

I'm listening! OT, but if your DS's interests extend to physics, it might be relevant to recommend the Uncle Albert books such as
http://www.amazon.com/Uncle-Albert-Quantum-Russell-Stannard/dp/0571226809/
and the books by Lucy and Stephen Hawking such as
http://www.amazon.com/Georges-Secret-Universe-Stephen-Hawking/dp/1416985840
Even more OT, if he's into chemistry you might want to look at
http://www.amazon.com/Disappearing-Spoon-Madness-Periodic-Elements/dp/0316051640/
which my DS6 has just devoured - this one is anecdotes, not a fictional story, and some might consider some of it unsuitable for children.

The closest I know to a story-based book with much higher level maths than the ones mentioned is unfortunately still a draft by a colleague of mine, seeking a publisher, and only a handful of IRL readers are getting access to it just now. If this changes I will certainly publicise it here, since DS loves the draft!

Those Uncle Albert books look great, ColinsMum--thank you!

shellymos, would your little guy be interested in biographies, I wonder? The Jeanne Bendick books about Galileo and Archimedes might be interesting in that case. We also tried Luetta Reimer's "Mathematicians are People, Too," but somehow didn't care greatly for the writing (which tends to be a bit of a dealbreaker around here, I'm afraid), and the content was a bit "lite" as well. Charles Seife's book about zero is the biography of a number, so to speak--that one was a lot of fun.

Edwin Abbott's "Flatland" might appeal to him?

Not stories, but fun, are the Martin Gardner collections of puzzles of various sorts; maybe he'd enjoy "Gotcha," which is his paradox collection?

Harpo's favourite math book right now is Starbird and Burger's "Heart of Mathematics." It's a textbook, but written in a very engaging conversational tone (and hey, it comes with 3D glasses!!). Might be fun? (It's ridiculously expensive new, but there are scads of cheap copies on abebooks--we got a brand-new copy of the previous edition for literally pennies plus shipping.)

Hope that helps....

peace
minnie

My DS7 has been addicted to a couple of math books at the library for a year or more (I think he's the only one who checks them out, he renews them twice and then we return them for one cycle and then do it all again because I haven't actually gotten around to buying them).

Go Figure

Why Pi

Oh, and also:

Math Dictionary

Hey Minnie, thanks for the "Heart of Mathematics" idea--I checked it out and ordered a copy of the 2nd edition for DS7's birthday! It definitely looks like something he'll be attached to for a long time.