Customer Reviews

Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi (A Math Adventure)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi is the story of a boy that must use math to save his father. Most of the character's names are terms found in math, like Sir Cumference and Radius, which cleverly adds to the effect of the story. The use of a dragon gives the story more of a fantasy feel which appeals to the younger audience. The illustrations in the book are done well and add to the medieval setting of the book because they look like oil paintings. The goal of this book is to introduce kids to the concept of pi in a fun and easy to understand way. It pulls this off by having a fairy tale setting and actually having a reason to use pi that kids can understand. This book is not a quick read, yet it's not long enough to lose the attention of a child. Even though this is a children's book, it should only be used for older children since it involves division with fractions. Because of this, it works as a great educational tool for those older children by introducing them to a fundamental math term they will most likely use later in life.

I feel the age range given on the website should not be ages 4-8. This is appropriate for 8 and up. That said, my 5 year old enjoys it as just a fairy tale and I would not attempt any "teaching" to him. He listens as I read it to my older daughters and maybe it will seep in so when he's old enough to begin measuring, he will easily grasp the concepts.

This is a wonderful book - good illustrations and a clever story. The author works the math part in without it being cumbersome. A few times through this book and your child will have a good grasp of pi. At the least, it will be a good memory trigger if he/she needs help in class.

I have use this book in my middle school classroom. The kids enjoy it. Yes, it is silly but heck so are middle school kids! Since reading the book and discussing it, the kids have a much better understanding of what pi really is, instead of just saying about 3.14.

My kids love this book! They range in age from an 11 yr old girl to a 3 yr old boy and they all enjoy it! My son loves the story and the knights and adventure. And, he is learning something in the process. My older kids enjoy the story also but on a different level and it also reinforces what they have already learned! What a great concept! I can't wait for more to come out! We already own all 4!

A young boy gives his father the wrong potion to cure a bellyache, and must solve the riddle of the ratio of a circle's circumference to it's diameter to get the dosage to cure him. I enjoyed the fun names (Geo and Sym, the Metry brothers), but I was disappointed in the author's choice to use 22/7 as the value for pi. If the story hadn't made such a big point of getting the dose correct (or Dad would never be cured), I wouldn't have had any trouble with introducing an approximate value.

Radius has to discover PI in order to save his father, Sir cumference from the evil curse of the fire breathing Dragon. I read this book to a fourth grade class and they really got a kick out of it. They wanted to learn pie along with Radius through his adventures to conquer the curse. This is a creative way to introduce a math lesson to children. There is even places to stop and let the kids try a couple problems. The activities include measuring and dividing. Teachers this is a must have.

As a fifth/sixth grade teacher, I find all of these "Sir Cumference" books to be interesting to students at every stage of learning about the math concepts they present. This is the one mathematically-flawed book in the series, however, which accounts for the 3 star rating. The young boy, Radius, searches for a cure for his father's unexpected transformation into a dragon, and 3 and 1/7 works as the value for pi needed to restore him to human form. It's a bit nit-picky of me, perhaps, but one of the most essential things a student should learn about pi is that it is a non-terminating decimal value which got a name because it couldn't be accurately quantified. That said, any teacher (or interested parent) could clear up the fuzzy definition. The books are funny, brief, written on a relatively easy level, and -- while most likely to be appreciated fully by students who have already learned the math -- could be enjoyed as stories by even the youngest listeners, as other parent/teacher reviewers have affirmed. This book, like the others, does a good job of using verbal jokes to help secure math vocabulary.

A great resource for homeschoolers or parents of high ability kids who need a different approach -
My children (8 and 4 yr.) love every story in this series.
Bravo to Cindy Newschwander - Creative, engaging, problem solving, and Dragons! What more does a young math student need?
We own the entire Sir Cumference series and revisit them regularly as the concepts take root in our daily lives.
Great books, every one.

I think this book was done really well. It has enough of a story to keep kids interested, and the math doesn't take over so much that it becomes like reading a text book. It has just enough math talk in to get the message about how we get pi across, and I really like that they use a familiar visual reference. I really think that this would be a great book to introduce the concept to kids for them to get a concrete understanding. I also thought it was cute how they explained how we got the word "pi".

I purchased this at the same time as Sir Cumference and the First Round Table and SC & the Isle of Immeter, and now I am going to add all the rest of the books in the Charlesbridge Math Adventures series to my wish list. I think they're great!

I picked up this book since I was learning about Pi in a math class and I am really glad that I did. My daughter liked the dragon and I liked that it had math ideas for names of the characters. Some of the other revues questioned the idea of using Pi in such a way, but as a teacher, isn't getting students to learn the material the point? The best way to get students to learn is by making it interesting and enjoyable and I believe this book did just that. I will be getting the rest of the set - for myself just as much as my daughter.