MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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Sir Cumference and the... (1997)
Cindy Neuschwander
Highly Rated!

These are pun filled picture books. To be honest, they do not appeal to me at all; I would give them low ratings for both literary quality and mathematical content. However, as you can see from the comments and user ratings below, I have been out-voted! The books in this series do seem to be very popular with teachers and school children.

Contributed by Julie McDowell

I thought surely you would have these classic children's math tales listed. I read them to my 6th graders with a phony English accent and they are just riveted to the stories, which also help introduce/reinforce some geometric terminology.

  • Sir Cumference and the First Round Table
  • Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi
  • Sir Cumference and the Sword in the Cone
  • Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland

Contributed by Arlene Meyer

Fun reading for a Math-loving 2nd grade homeschooler. Good adventure book!

Contributed by Sara Couchoud

I loved this whole series of books and want to know if more are available. I bought this books for my 2 sons and they not only loved them and the silly puns, but they learned the math concepts and ACTUALLY understood them. And although I hate to admit it, but I graduated from high school and some college and didn't understand some of these math concepts until I read these books. They are the greatest math teaching tools I have come accross yet.

Contributed by Anonymous

These books are fantastic for any age!

Contributed by Math teacher

I teach grade seven and eight math and these books are outstanding! They serve as an excellent way to include math vocabulary and students enjoy taking the journey of discovery along with the main characters. I am very impressed with the work of Neuschwander and can honestly say that I have never seen such work before. Extremely impressive work that has indeed helped change the way I teach math.

Contributed by Mrs. Clark

I use this book to help my 7th graders reinforce concepts. I have enjoyed reading these books to them, and reading the books created a children's book project that includes math into the curriculum. The names are fantastic. They especially liked Per and Imiter.

More information about this work can be found at www.amazon.com.
(Note: This is just one work of mathematical fiction from the list. To see the entire list or to see more works of mathematical fiction, return to the Homepage.)

Works Similar to Sir Cumference and the...
According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:
  1. The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics by Norton Juster
  2. Math Curse by Jon Scieszka / Lane Smith (illustrator)
  3. MathNet by Childrens Television Workshop
  4. A Tangled Tale by Lewis Carroll
  5. Many Moons by James Thurber
  6. Recess (Episode: A Genius Among Us) by Brian Hamill
  7. Math Patrol by TV Ontario
  8. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster / Jules Feiffer (Illustrator)
  9. Counting on Frank by Rod Clement
  10. Donald in Mathmagic Land by Hamilton Luske (director)
Ratings for Sir Cumference and the...:
RatingsHave you seen/read this work of mathematical fiction? Then click here to enter your own votes on its mathematical content and literary quality or send me comments to post on this Webpage.
Mathematical Content:
3.9/5 (10 votes)
..
Literary Quality:
3.4/5 (10 votes)
..

Categories:
GenreHumorous, Children's Literature,
Motif
TopicGeometry/Topology/Trigonometry,
MediumPicture Book,

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Exciting News: The 1,600th entry was recently added to this database of mathematical fiction! Also, for those of you interested in non-fictional math books let me (shamelessly) plug the recent release of the second edition of my soliton theory textbook.

(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)