Customer Reviews

The Cat in Numberland

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I read this delightful book to my sons, ages 10 and 7, and we all enjoyed it. The illustrations were fun and showed the numbers and letters playing their games. We loved the humor in the illustrations and the text. My 7 year old spotted the bus in the shape of the letters B-U-S. Having to say the number "One Million Two Hundred Thirty-Four Thousand Five Hundred Sixty-Six" was part of the fun of the book! And when the fractions move in and the hotel is still full and there is room for everyone...we just laughed and wondered at the beauty of numbers. A fun book for those who love numbers!

This book maybe a little tedious for parents to read to their kids, but my six year old loved it and it made him think about various difficult mathematical concepts (infinity, fractions) in an accessible and fun way. The artwork is detailed and much action is hidden in the pictures for those who look carefully.

My daughter has read this book repeatedly over the past year, she is now 8, and I do wish there were more books like this in print to satisfy her appetite for math literature. The variety of math picture books out there is amazing, and there is no shortage of math reading for high school and adults, but this kind of fantasy adventure accessible to the 7 to 11 year old crowd is rare. I read it to her the first time, and then she owned it for herself. Illustrations are a matter of personal taste, use the "Search Inside" feature to determine if they will put you off the book, but we certainly enjoy them! The idea is not to teach young children advanced math concepts to master them, but to introduce them in a fun way. Later when they do learn these concepts in more formal settings, they are like old friends.

My niece is 9 years old. She was reading before going to sleep. The book was so good she wanted to just keep reading, but fell asleep with the book in her hands.
A MATH book! When I asked her about it she was really excited, and told me all about the cat, and the various scenarios with numbers, (she talked about zero like a person full of life). So... instead of the same old boring arithmetic, she studies in school... an exciting book that brings the numbers to life, and introduces her to some tough MATH concepts. The Hilbert hotel is one of my favorites, (as a mathematician), and now it is one of hers. Well written, with great illustrations. Please buy this book.

Actually I did not buy this book for me but for my grandson who is 12 and his mom who is a math teacher. I was not intrigued by it enough to even finish reading it --my husband read it and said he thought it was not very useful to him as he didn't need any help in understanding the concept of infinity. When I showed it to my grandson -he immediately sat down and read it through. I told him that I intended to return it but he thought it was cool and took it home with him. So I guess it might be useful for middle school kids or maybe a school library. There really isn't much to it; at least that was my impression.

I was really disappointed by this book,and I've never felt the urge to pan another's work before.The author has written some fine books in the past, but this is a tiny production with 60 small pages, including title page, table of contents etc, mostly bizarre drawings (someone must like them, I guess),and mainly large print of such sentences as "Number One Million Two Hundred Thirty-Four Thousand Five Hundred Sixty-Six moves to Room 1,234,567" which take up a large proportion of the text on some pages. And the single concept of the entire book is Hilbert's hotel with its infinite number of rooms. It seems to be adressed to curious 6-year-olds, but I can't imagine them reading it. Don't buy this book without looking at it closely first. (I am over thirteen! If I were 5 I might have enjoyed the book).