The Number Devil : : a Mathematical Adventure

Locations
Call Number: Y Fiction / Enzensberger, Hans
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown Kids Books 4-week checkout	Y Fiction / Enzensberger, Hans	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown Kids Books 4-week checkout	Y Fiction / Enzensberger, Hans	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Kids Books 4-week checkout	Y Fiction / Enzensberger, Hans	4-week checkout	In transit

Annoyed with his math teacher who assigns word problems and won't let him use a calculator, twelve-year-old Robert finds help from the number devil in his dreams.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Two thumbs up! submitted by philiptv on June 27, 2012, 7:34am The Number Devil is a great book. I learned a lot and you would too. I finally understood the patterns that I saw in number puzzle books. From Bonacci Numbers to Triangle Numbers, Hans Magnus Enzensberger covers all the mathematical wonders.

for number lovers submitted by milka on June 13, 2015, 4:20pm good book if you like math and complicated books

Fun about math? submitted by sarai koster-mockeridge on June 17, 2017, 8:05am This book makes math, if not fun, then at least more assessable.

Making fun of Math submitted by avrogers1 on June 19, 2017, 11:35am Follow a youngster as they work through the world of math... literally. What a neat story to help us make learning about math problems a little bit more fun.

Patterns submitted by kathscot on June 20, 2017, 5:04pm An imaginative presentation of some interesting properties of numbers. Not a book to help you with homework, but a book that could spark a love of math.

The Number Devil submitted by leighsprauer on November 20, 2017, 8:13am I was excited to get this book for my 8-year-old, who loves math. What could be better than a fiction book about math? Although I was disappointed by the book, my son really enjoyed it.
The book is really a series of dreams of a young boy who initially doesn't enjoy math that much. Each night he meets the Number Devil in his dreams, teaches him about interesting math functions - exponents, factorials, prime numbers, Fibonacci numbers, irrational numbers, etc. - in dreamlike settings. I was hoping for more of a plot, or a more interesting and maybe less heavy-handed way of explaining the math. Instead, it was more like a series of math lessons, which made it a chore to read (even for me, a former math teacher and a lover of math). I was also slightly annoyed by the author's use of "fake" terminology ("jumping numbers" instead of "exponents", "prima donnas" instead of "prime numbers" for example), although he redeemed himself somewhat in the epilogue. Nevertheless, my son enjoyed it, so I would recommend it to other kids who like math. It might be a tougher sell to kids who are apathetic about math.

amazing submitted by .-.-.-. on June 26, 2021, 10:08pm An amazing book where Robert dreams about a number devil. Together they explore things such as square roots, prime numbers, etc. Overall an interesting book that is also fun to read and I recommend it for math fans.