THE MAGIC NUMERALS OF ALI KHAYYAN

For children who now have the New Math habit, this is the ultimate-- a whole story written in the language. It all starts out when Al (Ali Khayyam) wins the Crunchy-Munchies slogan contest, which gives him the opportunity to go on for the grand prize of $100,000 if he can guarantee to spend exactly $50,000 on a world trip. The itinerary includes a stopover in a country with a base 5 numerical system, and a shipwreck on an island with a Cyclops programmed for terror and with a binary twitch in his eyelid. We started to lose track once the numerical plot thickens. However the boy keeps being thrown into drastic counting situations before he finally gets to pocket his award money. Actually the story simply introduces series of math problems and does not provide any great conceptual insights. Whether the wise-cracking approach will attract the faltering math student is anyone's guess, but the book may amuse those who already enjoy trick problems.