TouchPress and Stewart offer eight challenging dives into mathematical theory and practice for readers not intimidated by complex formulas and brain-bending concepts.
Floating balloons on the opening screen lead to concise explorations of select topics in areas ranging from “Primes” to “Polygons,” “Infinity” to “Music.” In “Nature,” for instance, Stewart focuses on the discovery of the oddly similar but not identical “golden” and Fibonacci numbers and their occurrences in phenomena from sunflowers to spiral galaxies. Likewise, in “Infinity,” he covers set theory and other efforts to make sense of that concept’s bewildering paradoxes. Throughout, readers can tap highlighted names and special terms throughout to see definitions or biographical sketches. They can also search (with near-certain success) for their own birthdays in the first million digits of pi, create a message Enigma Machine–style in “Secret Codes” and experiment with harmonic intervals in “Music,” among other clever interactive demonstrations. The author swims easily through the sometimes-turbid sea of numbers, and the clean graphics, sharp photos and well-designed features that accompany his lucid explanations will help draw readers along in his wake. This may tempt even children who tremble at the sight of a square root to take the plunge. (Requires iOS 7.1 and above.) (iPad informational app. 14 & up)
Pub Date: March 27, 2014
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: TouchPress
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2014
Troubled teen meets totemic catalyst in Mikaelsen’s (Petey, 1998, etc.) earnest tribute to Native American spirituality. Fifteen-year-old Cole is cocky, embittered, and eaten up by anger at his abusive parents. After repeated skirmishes with the law, he finally faces jail time when he viciously beats a classmate. Cole’s parole officer offers him an alternative—Circle Justice, an innovative justice program based on Native traditions. Sentenced to a year on an uninhabited Arctic island under the supervision of Edwin, a Tlingit elder, Cole provokes an attack from a titanic white “Spirit Bear” while attempting escape. Although permanently crippled by the near-death experience, he is somehow allowed yet another stint on the island. Through Edwin’s patient tutoring, Cole gradually masters his rage, but realizes that he needs to help his former victims to complete his own healing. Mikaelsen paints a realistic portrait of an unlikable young punk, and if Cole’s turnaround is dramatic, it is also convincingly painful and slow. Alas, the rest of the characters are cardboard caricatures: the brutal, drunk father, the compassionate, perceptive parole officer, and the stoic and cryptic Native mentor. Much of the plot stretches credulity, from Cole’s survival to his repeated chances at rehabilitation to his victim being permitted to share his exile. Nonetheless, teens drawn by the brutality of Cole’s adventures, and piqued by Mikaelsen’s rather muscular mysticism, might absorb valuable lessons on anger management and personal responsibility. As melodramatic and well-meaning as the teens it targets. (Fiction. YA)
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2001
ISBN: 0-380-97744-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2001
A well-loved author brings together, on a Maine vacation, characters from two of her books. Peter's parents have assured him that though Sheila ("The Great") Tubman and her family will be nearby, they'll have their own house; but instead, they find a shared arrangement in which the two families become thoroughly intertwined—which suits everyone but the curmudgeonly Peter. Irrepressible little brother Fudge, now five, is planning to marry Sheila, who agrees to babysit with Peter's toddler sister; there's a romance between the grandparents in the two families; and the wholesome good fun, including a neighborhood baseball game featuring an aging celebrity player, seems more important than Sheila and Peter's halfhearted vendetta. The story's a bit tame (no controversies here), but often amusingly true to life and with enough comic episodes to satisfy fans.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1990
ISBN: 0-525-44672-9
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2000
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