Extended Book Review: Really Big Numbers, by Richard Evan Schwartz; The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdös, by Deborah Heiligman; The Short Seller, by Elissa Brent Weissman

The genre of math lit for children is not huge, but it is growing. My kid loves the early reader books by my friend and colleague Julie Glass (A Dollar for Penny (1998), The Fly On the Ceiling (2000)). I found Izolda Fotiyeva’s Math with Mom (2003) too late for my daughter but will definitely read it with my son. For a neat twist on the traditional alphabet book, I recommend The Technical Alphabet (2014) by the engineer sisters Lavanya and Melissa Jawaharlal. More recently a colleague introduced me to Laura Overdeck’s Bedtime Math series; these will soon join the growing math library in our house. Whether your goal is to raise mathematicians or simply adults who enjoy and appreciate mathematics, you have many books on your side