Brian and Danny are introduced to the laws of chance through coin tossing, spinner and card games, and the weather; they even discover that whenever 23 or more people get together, chances are better than even that at least two will have the same birthday. Although the fictional component strains credibility (the two boys spend most of their waking time at home, school, and even at birthday parties talking about the laws of chance), setting a probability primer in everyday life does reduce its pedantry. A minor cavil: none of the cheery, informal drawings actually illustrates the ideas presented, missing a good opportunity to introduce charts and graphs as a help to visualization. Nonetheless, a lively introduction that may hook a budding physicist (or gambler) on the endless fascination of the vagaries of numbers. (Nonfiction. 9+)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1991
ISBN: 0-395-56516-2
Page Count: 102
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1991
1882
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-689-82979-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1999
For all its brevity, chockablock with philosophical topics to ponder and debate.
In the wake of Triangle (2017), a further raft of ontological posers in stripped-down geometric garb.
Square, an unreflective sort, regards hauling large cubes of rock from the depths of his secret cave to a hilltop every day as his “work.” He is set to a new task, though, after Circle praises him as a “sculptor” and a “genius,” then commissions a portrait. Cluelessly setting to with a hammer and chisel to carve a “perfect” representation of Circle from a stone block, Square is left at the end of the day in the middle of a ring of rubble. Despairingly, he falls asleep as rain begins to fall. Next morning the despair is still there—so when Circle floats up and sees her reflection in the puddle that’s accumulated overnight her response is unexpected: “It is perfect,” she says. “You are a genius.” Barnett’s closing “But was he really?” leaves readers (those who have the appropriate patience and experience, anyway) to judge for themselves. Square’s downcast eyes as he looks at his own reflection in the puddle heighten the ambiguity. With typically deceptive minimalism Klassen places a few flat, blocky shapes on the white pages to suggest the physical landscape, angling Square’s body and glance to convey the emotional one. Humor is in the details: a bit of twig that catches on harried Square’s head and stays there; the shadow that appears beneath Circle as she floats along through the air.
For all its brevity, chockablock with philosophical topics to ponder and debate. (Picture book. 10-adult)Pub Date: May 8, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7636-9607-8
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
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