Harried schoolteacher? Worried parent? Self-defined math klutz? All could profit from the text, but there is enough...
Potter (This May Help You Understand the World, 2008) accessibly deconstructs simple math.
This Oxford graduate in classics, who has taught math in Rwanda and Romania, confesses that he had a problem doing sums in his head. That started him on his pursuit of an explanation of why so many people fear math or despair of doing even simple arithmetic. The result is a patient and gentle dissection of the rules: how and why they work; carefully worked-out examples; simple tricks to make mental calculations easier; and ample do-it-yourself problems, helpfully explicated in an appendix. True, most readers could do without the corny stereotypes: the classroom with the obnoxiously bright Bernadette versus the hopelessly disorganized Charlie (who never does get the message). But Potter rationalizes the rules with his artful use of visuals, numerical tables, squares or rectangles with grid lines to depict fractions and ways to cope with them. While most of the book deals with arithmetic, later chapters explore elementary algebra and probability theory, again demonstrating the logic of the rules. Throughout, Potter takes time to digress into math history, including brief sketches of principal thinkers, and he offers plenty of practical advice: He explains why your best bet at the roulette table is to lay down your chips on the first round and then leave the table, whether you’ve won or lost.
Harried schoolteacher? Worried parent? Self-defined math klutz? All could profit from the text, but there is enough sophistication and wry humor in Potter’s approach to appeal to more savvy readers of any age.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-60598-376-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pegasus
Review Posted Online: Sept. 5, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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