The Number Devil

Imagine having a real hatred of your math class?  Your teacher, Mr. Bockel, scares the living daylights out of you.  It’s time to learn the story of Robert Wilson in The Number Devil by Hans Magnus Enzensberger.  Robert is a boy who does not perform well in his class and constantly fears how he will do in the midst of the pressure in class. Robert’s daytime fears begin to get addressed when he goes to sleep and meets the “Number Devil” for the next twelve nights!  The Number Devil appears each evening taking Robert on travels into solving the problems of math rules from arithmetic progression, multiplication, fractions, decimals, Bonacci’s numbers, triangular numbers, the importance of zero, Fibonancci’s numbers, hopping sequence, imaginary numbers, irrational numbers, Pascal’s triangle, Pie, principles of math, and square roots.  (Yes I’m missing some of the other rules, but you get the idea).  Every night was a new lesson.  Over the course of time Robert learns he actually likes math, and so will the reader as they understand the background of many of the rules.  Why not have a book on math that is creative and inviting just as young Robert does.  I really loved the brief stories, colors/drawings in the book, and of course, the energy that a child shows when they achieve a little success.  How creative this book is at showing math is a fun subject to study in school.  This is a keeper and for those who are around the age of 10 or even 45 studying for the GRE!  It’s a really good read.