You Can Count on Monsters
The First 100 Numbers and Their Characters

You Can Count on Monsters: The First 100 Numbers and Their Characters by Richard Evan Schwartz
Price: $24.95
Availability: In stock.

Summary

This special “counting” book visually explores the concepts of factoring and the role of prime and composite numbers. The playful and colorful monsters are designed to give children (and even older audiences) an intuitive understanding of the building blocks of numbers and the basicsof multiplication. The introduction and appendices are designed to help adult readers answer questions about factoring from their young audience. The artwork is crisp and creative, and the colors are very bright and engaging.

Details

ISBN: 978-1-56881-578-7
Year: 2010
Format: Paperback
Pages: 244
Web Site:
http://www.richardevanschwartz.com/monsters.html

Reviews

Donald E. Myers, AAAS Science Books & Films (External Link)

August 2010

“In this book, the old saying ’A picture is worth a thousand words’ has been twisted around. … There is very little reading in the book; the ideas will become clear from the pictures and drawings. Except perhaps for the very last part, the volume should be accessible for elementary school students, and even for some of them, the last part should not be too difficult. … Because of the color and the emphasis on pictures, the book may even have some appeal to more advanced students and to adults who are ’afraid’ of mathematics, because it doesn’t repeat what they may have already experienced, but instead brings out new ideas with little demand on prior knowledge.”

Pierre de la Harpe, Images des mathématiques (PDF)

June 2010

“You Can Count on Monsters” has gone international! In the blog “Images des Mathématiques”, professor of mathematics at the University of Geneva Pierre de la Harpe writes “Prime numbers are like Antigone, Oedipus, or the Olympic Games: they already interested Euclid, Sophocles and Pindar, and they are always at the heart of the news … Thus, after a near infinite number of books devoted [to them], a mathematician from the East Coast of the United States has recently published [something] new [about primes] … [for] … children … most pages are strictly without text, with some figures and some very nice drawings.”

Bookbuilders of Boston 53rd Annual New England Book Show (External Link)

May 2010

A K Peters is pleased to announce that You Can Count on Monsters: The First 100 Numbers and Their Characters by Richard Schwartz has won Best of Category for juvenile books at Bookbuilder’s 53rd Annual New England Book Show. This show recognizes the year’s most outstanding work by New England publishers, printers, and graphic designers. Judges praised the book’s freshness, beautiful illustrations, and unique way of looking at numbers, and called it “a book for kids and parents.”

Fernando Q. Gouvea, MAA Reviews (PDF)

March 2010

“This delightful book is a result of the author’s desire to teach his daughters about primes and factorization. … The whole thing is a lot of fun. The book is well produced and nice to look at.”

Publishers Weekly

March 2010

This compact, innovative book counts to 100 using prime numbers represented as “monsters,” each with identifying characteristics (two resembles a bee with two buggy eyes, and three is an angry-looking triangular creature). The book opens with explanations of multiplication, prime and composite numbers, and factor trees, then moves on to a list of numbers. Each prime number looks unique, while composite numbers are represented by scenes involving their prime monsters (eight is illustrated as three of the beelike twos, i.e., two times two times two. Readers may have difficulty deciphering the pictures, which come to resemble little works of abstract geometric art. But especially for creative learners, visualizing the roles each monster plays may lead to deeper number sense. Ages 4-8.

Katherine Federici Greenwood, Princeton Alumni Weekly Blog (External Link)

March 2010

“Intended for elementary-age children, You Can Count on Monsters first explains the basic ideas of multiplication, prime and composite numbers, and factoring. Then for each number, from one through 100, the book’s left-hand pages depict the number broken down into its prime factors using dots and factor trees, and on the facing page, there is a playful monster that relates to the number. The monsters are designed to help children understand the building blocks of numbers. Each prime number is represented by a different monster. … For each composite number, the scene depicted involves the monsters for its prime factors. … Young readers can have fun figuring out how the monster is related to its prime numbers.”

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