Fun Maths Book Reviews

Fun Math Books for kids

Since I work with very advanced children, you need to take that into account when you see my age recommendations.

For kindergarten and elementary school, and probably some adults

"Imagine" by Norman Messenger has beautiful pictures, each one a puzzle, joke or optical illusion. As a bonus, at the corners of every page there is a math puzzle for older children.

For kids, starting from kindergarten, and for adults

While "The Book of Classic Board Games" by Klutz Press is not exactly a math book, it would be a most excellent possession. This book details 15 board games, including their complete rules and, more importantly, boards and a set of pieces for all of them. So one can play all the games contained in it right away.

The games in this book are classics. They have all stood the test of time, most having been popular for centuries, and some even for millennia. All these games are easy to learn, despite having deep (sometimes very deep) strategies. Both children and adults will enjoy this book.


For kids, starting from kindergarten, and for adults

"The Magic Show" by Mark Setteducati has the unique (as far as I know) property of being a self-presenting magic show. The book has various tabs and wheels that one pulls or rotates to make things happen. The interesting part is that the tricks tend not to involve subterfuge, but rather are mathematical in nature. The book is not only fun: figuring out how the tricks work is also educational.






For kids in elementary and middle school

The name of "Cool Math" by Christy Maganzini is apt — the math presented here really is cool. It is appropriate for children slightly past the stage of being able to count to a million and to multiply.

I used to teach at School Plus, and later discovered that the contents of this book coincided precisely with my program. That is, the author of this book and I have the same sense of coolness.

This book constitutes a children's version of MathAlive, a math class at Princeton University that is also cool.


For kids starting middle school, and for adults

"A Super-Sneaky, Double-Crossing, Up, Down, Round & Round Maze Book" by Larry Evans is an excellent book of mazes. Each maze differs from the others, and each one is a work of art.









Grades 5-8

I conducted a Math Party for the benefit of a Princeton Charter School fundraising auction. "Solve This" by James S. Tanton was the best book for it. It's particularly appropriate for kids who do Mathcounts.

Solve This is a book of activities — rather than exercises — that work well for a group effort or for an individual who wants to show off to their friends.





Fun Math Books for kids and adults

These books can be enjoyed by kids and adults at the same time.

For kids and adults

"Masters of Deception" by Al Seckel is the most mathematical art book I've ever seen. As you would expect, this book has chapters with paintings by Dali and Escher. But it also includes ambigrams by Scott Kim, anamorphoses by Istvan Orosz and many other artists who use optical illusions and impossible figures. The day I brought this book home, my family cancelled all our plans because we simply could not put this book aside until we finished it. I like art when it is not only beautiful, but when it also puzzles me.




Beginning of the book: 8 and up. End of the book: 20 and up

"The Riddle of Scheherazade" by Raymond Smullyan is a fascinating book of logic puzzles. Unlike some puzzle books, the puzzles in this one build in difficulty.

"What is the Name of this Book?" by Raymond Smullyan is likewise structured with a progression of logic puzzles, running from the classic "You have two coins with total value 15c. One of them is not a nickel. What are they?" to Godel's Incompleteness Theorem.

Raymond Smullyan is, in my opinion, the best author of logic books of all time. He totally knows his stuff, and has an exceptional sense of humor. He has written a great many books on logic and on the Tao. His perspective on the latter is very interesting because it is the perspective of a logician.

Feel free to search through Amazon for Raymond Smullyan.
   

Age 9 and up

"Aha! Gotcha" by Martin Gardner is about paradoxes. It presents numerous paradoxes, complete with amusing pictures, and then dissects and discusses each one in non-technical terms. It's great fun if you aren't acquainted with paradoxes, and potentially enlightening even if you are. My 11-year-old son has read this book more than ten times.

Martin Gardner is the classic author of recreational mathematics books. He has written a huge amount of stuff — brainteasers, hexaflexagons, discussions of the structure of the universe — you name it. One particularly good example is "Classic Brainteasers" (on the right). Go ahead and search Amazon for Martin Gardner. You're likely to find something to your taste.
   

Ages 9 and up

"Logic puzzles" by Mark Fowler has a delightful collection of logic puzzles, which, when taken together, contain the clues to a "superpuzzle." The "superpuzzle" provides a unifying thread that motivates the kids to persist in solving the individual puzzles in the book.








For kids starting from middle school, and for adults

"Walter Wick's Optical Tricks" by Walter Wick is a book of optical illusions. The fascinating thing about this book, though, is that all the illusions are presented as photographs. There are pictures (real, no photo editing!) of impossible shapes, objects floating in midair, and other fascinating optical tricks. The book encourages the reader to figure out how each photograph was taken. Try it!

You might recognize Walter Wick's spectacular photography from his his photo-work in the "I spy" series.




For non-beginner chess players

"The Chess Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes" by Raymond M. Smullyan is not your typical chess puzzle book. Instead of asking you to find a mate in three steps or to win material, this book offers entirely different challenges. For example, it presents a position, tells you that it was obtained legally, and then asks you to find the last two moves. Sometimes it gives you a position with one piece missing and asks you to place it (again, assuming legality throughout the game). After engaging with this book, you'll see chess in a thoroughly altered light.

"The Chess Mysteries of the Arabian Knights" by Raymond M. Smullyan is similar to the previous book, but the puzzles are more difficult.