The Great Number Rumble: A Story of Math in Surprising Places.

Jeremy’s new friend Sam loves math. One day, at the beginning of the school year, Mr. Lake, the director of education for the region, announces that there will be no more math at school. All the kids are happy. Sam has to prove to everyone, in particular to the director, that math is fun and part of life. Sam proposes a bet that if he cannot convince the director that math is important, he will work for the director every day after school if the director pays him one cent on the first day, two cents on the second day, four cents on the third day, and so on for a year. Mr. Lake accepts the deal without hesitation.

To prove his argument, Sam begins by explaining that triangles are the strongest shapes and they are used in bridges and skyscrapers. He talks about how the number of petals on a flower is often one of the Fibonacci numbers. Sam even goes high-tech and talks about how math is used in creating digital animation and characters in cartoons and movies. Sam goes on to give example after example of ways that math applies in everyday life. He shows the teachers, students, and even the director that a curriculum without math is chaos.

By the way, Sam put himself in a win-win situation with his proposed bet. Sam calculates the amount of money that he will get from Mr. Lake, and it is not just a few dollars.

The book is great for children. It gives a fun perspective to math as a subject in the school curriculum. It is written in a simple language. The book presents some interesting math problems that make the children ask for more. The presented problems are related to applied mathematics, which inspires the children to find where the math is in the nature and their daily activities.

There are two printing mistakes on page 75. The number of red dots in the third triangle should be 9 and not 6. Also, the number of red dots in the fourth square should be 16 and not 19. Highly recommended.