The Book of Perfectly Perilous Math

January 30, 2012
Using a Mission Impossible–style formula, Connolly, the author of The Book of Totally Irresponsible Science and The Book of Potentially Catastrophic Science, presents 24 beyond-the-classroom scenarios that require the use of fractions, ratios, geometry, and more. Challenges include surviving the first day as an editorial assistant at Catwalk magazine by buying enough pizza for hungry fashion bigwigs, administering the correct amount of antivenin serum to an unconscious scientist who has been bitten by a spider, and determining whether a pyramid scheme will be financially beneficial. Each problem includes “Survival strategies” or math operations needed to solve the dilemma, a blank worksheet, a step-by-step solution, and a “math lab” featuring hands-on experiments and activities that elaborate on the concepts introduced. A quirky diversion for the math-minded. Ages 9–up.

August 1, 2012

Gr 5-8-This follow-up to The Book of Potentially Catastrophic Science (Workman, 2010) offers 24 engaging and thought-provoking math problems. A brief introduction explains the arrangement of the text and includes some tips and hints for tackling them. Each one is framed as a tough or dire situation that readers must solve using their math skills and knowledge. There are three levels of difficulty: "You Might Make It" (grade 5), "Slim to None" (grade 6), and "You're Dead" (grade 7). The grade-level assignments are based on Common Core Standards in mathematics, which the problems are aligned with. Each entry begins by stating its "challenge." A boxed area called "Euclid's Advice" offers some tips and suggestions for solving the challenge, followed by a blank page for students to work out their solutions. Next, the solution is provided. Explanations are clear and easy to understand. In "Sage in the Tower," readers must figure out how to use shadows and proportions to determine how tall a tower is in order to rescue the king's scholar. Lastly, each challenge concludes with a "Math Lab" that offers an example of how the principles being addressed can be put into action. The layout is clean and attractive with wacky three-color cartoons throughout. A useful addition to libraries wanting to supplement their mathematics collections, in addition to being an entertaining supplement to the curriculum.-Maren Ostergard, King County Library System, Issaquah, WA

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2012
In a labored follow-up to his Book of Potentially Catastrophic Science (2010), Connolly offers 24 hazardous scenarios that require math and logic skills to escape. Introductions to each chapter specify which "Survival Strategies"--ranging from "Operations and Algebraic Thinking" to "Geometry" and "Expressions and Equations"--will be exercised. The author then plants readers beneath a bladed pendulum, imprisons them in an ancient tomb with coded directions to a hidden exit, charges them with stringing a fiber-optic cable around the Earth before a giant asteroid hits, challenges them to get three people across a rope bridge in the dark with but one flashlight and so on. Though he provides blank work pages for do-it-yourselfers, he also lays out every significant component of each problem and places step-by-step solution immediately adjacent. These are accompanied by "Math Lab" projects that require similar skills in more real-world settings and occasional number tricks. Dramatic and varied as the situations are, they're never more than thinly disguised exercises, because nearly every one depends on a rat chewing through a rope in exactly one minute, the bus getting precisely 17 miles to the gallon, an astronaut's heartbeat never varying from 72 beats per minute or other arbitrarily fixed values. An inviting alternative to utilitarian workbooks, but full of transparent contrivances. (Nonfiction. 10-13)

(COPYRIGHT (2012) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)