Product Description

Twelve-year-old Robert hates his maths teacher. He sets his class boring problems and won't let them use their calculators. Then in his dreams Robert meets the Number Devil who brings the subject magically to life, illustrating with wit and charm a world in which numbers can amaze and fascinate, where maths is nothing like the dreary, difficult process that so many of us dread. "The Number Devil" knows how to make maths devilishly simple.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #139489 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 264 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Young Robert's dreams have taken a decided turn for the weird. Instead of falling down holes and such, he's visiting a bizarre magical land of number tricks with the number devil as his host. Starting at one and adding zero and all the rest of the numbers, Robert and the number devil use giant furry calculators, piles of coconuts, and endlessly scrolling paper to introduce basic concepts of numeracy, from interesting number sequences to exponents to matrices. Author Hans Magnus Enzensberger's dry humour and sense of wonder will keep you and your kids entranced while you learn (shhh!) mathematical principles. Who could resist the little red guy who calls prime numbers "prima donnas", irrational numbers "unreasonable", and roots "rutabagas"? Not that the number devil is without his devilish qualities. He loses his temper when Robert looks for the easy way out of a number puzzle or dismisses maths as boring and useless. "What do you expect?" he asks. "I'm the number devil, not Santa Claus." (Ages 10 to adult) --Therese Littleton

Review
"* 'Enzensberger has made Pythagoras the new Harry Potter...explaining mathematical concepts in a clear and highly original way' Sunday Business Post * 'Hopefully, Mr Enzensberger's enterprising and imaginative book will play its part in rescuing some of Britain's children from a lifetime phobia of maths' Daily Mail * 'Children old enough to have encountered fractions and square roots will be fascinated by this book, as will their parents' Sunday Times * 'More attractive than a textbook, an adult and child could work through this together' Irish Times"

About the Author
Hans Magnus Enzensberger is one of Germany's greatest living writers. He lives in Munich.

Customer Reviews

Excellent for bright kids
My 8 year old loves this - she has always had a knack for seeing patterns and methods in numbers. The book has a lot of humour and some good illustrations. However, it is only likely to appeal to a child (or adult) who revels in numbers; it could be useful for teaching or illustrating one or two concepts (e.g. Fibonacci sequences) to classrooms or individual kids who might otherwise struggle to grasp the concepts.

Maths as a story
An outstanding book for adults and children who think they hate maths. Teachers of arts subjects will find this a good way of getting into the subject. A brilliant idea, well executed.

Not just for those struggling with maths
We were recommended this book for our son, who is gifted in maths and loves number problems and puzzles. I started reading it to him as a bedtime story a year or so ago and he would volunteer to go to bed just so we could get onto the next chapter! He's just finished re-reading it for himself and it remains a favourite.
It's quirky, introduces many mathematical concepts that I struggled to understand, and appeals to his sense of humour.

If you have a mathematically gifted young child, this book should have pride of place on his or her bookshelf.