Share <Embed>

FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon or get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

Arrives: Wednesday, Jan 6 Details

In Stock.
As an alternative, the Kindle eBook is available now and can be read on any device with the free Kindle app.

Ships from	Amazon.com
Sold by	Amazon.com

Details

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Add a gift receipt with prices hidden

FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon or get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

Used: Good | Details

Sold by Powwow Products

Fulfilled by Amazon

Other Sellers on Amazon

$14.21
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: West Coast Bookseller

$14.90
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: GreenIceMedia

$14.94
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: mymainebooks

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 3 images

Follow the Author

Hans Magnus Enzensberger

The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure Paperback – May 1, 2000

by Hans Magnus Enzensberger (Author), Rotraut Susanne Berner (Illustrator), Michael Henry Heim (Translator)

409 ratings

See all formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$12.99

—

Library Binding

"Please retry"

$30.80

$26.80

Paperback

"Please retry"

$16.56

$11.59

Paperback, May 1, 2000

—

$11.00

$1.39

The international best-seller that makes mathematics a thrilling exploration.

In twelve dreams, Robert, a boy who hates math, meets a Number Devil, who leads him to discover the amazing world of numbers: infinite numbers, prime numbers, Fibonacci numbers, numbers that magically appear in triangles, and numbers that expand without. As we dream with him, we are taken further and further into mathematical theory, where ideas eventually take flight, until everyone - from those who fumble over fractions to those who solve complex equations in their heads - winds up marveling at what numbers can do.

Hans Magnus Enzensberger is a true polymath, the kind of superb intellectual who loves thinking and marshals all of his charm and wit to share his passions with the world. In The Number Devil, he brings together the surreal logic of Alice in Wonderland and the existential geometry of Flatland with the kind of math everyone would love, if only they had a number devil to teach it to them.

Reading age

12 - 15 years
Print length

264 pages
Language:

English
Lexile measure

580L
Dimensions

6.35 x 0.59 x 9.31 inches
Publisher

Picador
Publication date

May 1, 2000
ISBN-10

0805062998
ISBN-13

978-0805062991
See all details

Frequently bought together

Total price: To see our price, add these items to your cart. Why don't we show the price?

Buy the selected items together

This item:The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure by Hans Magnus Enzensberger Paperback
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00. Details
Merriam-Webster's Pocket Spanish-English Dictionary, Newest Edition, (Flexible Paperback) (Pocket… by Merriam-Webster Paperback $5.95
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00. Details
501 Spanish Verbs (Barron's 501 Verbs) (Spanish Edition) by Christopher Kendris Ph.D. Paperback $14.44
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.00. Details

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items when the Enter key is pressed. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Theoni Pappas

95

Paperback
$11.79
Malba Tahan

159

Paperback
$14.59
Cindy Neuschwander

246

Paperback
$7.99
Boris A. Kordemsky

432

Paperback
$12.99
Jon Scieszka

349

Hardcover
$16.99
Wendy Lichtman

101

Paperback
$5.99

Special offers and product promotions

Amazon Business : For business-only pricing, quantity discounts and FREE Shipping. Register a free business account

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a starred review, PW noted that "exceptionally handsome four-color illustrations and vignettes deepen the magic of this mathematically minded fantasy. For certain kinds of readersAchess players, puzzle enthusiastsAthis will be a favorite." Ages 11-up. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Rare and glorious.” ―Michael Pakenham, Baltimore Sun

“Adults who know a little about math will find this book as enlightening as younger readers will.” ―Martin Gardner, Los Angeles Times

Publisher : Picador (May 1, 2000)
Language: : English
Paperback : 264 pages
ISBN-10 : 0805062998
ISBN-13 : 978-0805062991
Reading age : 12 - 15 years
Lexile measure : 580L
Item Weight : 14.4 ounces
Dimensions : 6.35 x 0.59 x 9.31 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #75,405 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #63 in Teen & Young Adult Language Arts Books
- #503 in Children's Reading & Writing Education Books (Books)
- #694 in Mathematics (Books)

Customer Reviews:
409 ratings

Start reading The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Customer reviews

5 star		77%
4 star		12%
3 star		6%
2 star		2%
1 star		3%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

bluesy18

It's really quite a fun read, and something I imagine we'll come back ...

Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2017

Verified Purchase

Bought it to read with my 8.5 year old, who is curious about math but not necessarily self-motivated when it comes to learning new ideas. He LOVES this book. When we did the square roots (Rutabegas, lol) he was almost laughing, and Fibonacci numbers blew his mind. It's really quite a fun read, and something I imagine we'll come back to over time. Does he fully get it? No, but he certainly understands the patterns emerging and is quite keen to talk about them and play around with the ideas. So this is fantastic! (BTW, we happened upon this b/c we're big fans of Berner's other illustrated books, which I also recommend.)

21 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amazon Customer

Robert accepts that these informative dreams are better than his usual nightmares

Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2016

Verified Purchase

Hans Magnus Enzensberger’s The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure takes 12 year old main character Robert through a series of 12 dreams with a number devil, opening Robert’s eyes to the wonders of math and numbers. Robert is not a fan of math, but he begins to dream about a mysterious, confident, and eccentric number devil who teaches him about many of the fascinating types of numbers and their properties. Although hesitant at first, Robert accepts that these informative dreams are better than his usual nightmares. Throughout the book, Robert becomes increasingly interested in these numbers and cannot wait to dream at night and learn from the number devil.
Enzensberger accurately illustrates the feelings that many young students possess about math. Children often do not understand the importance of math in our world. They become overwhelmed with increasingly complex numbers, causing confusion and discouraging them from pursuing more math. This book combats these attitudes and shows readers how exciting numbers can be, from Fibonacci numbers to primes, irrationals, transcendentals, Pascal’s Triangle, and more. Robert is a very relatable character, someone who makes comments that almost all of us have made about math at some point in our educational experience. Despite not always being the easiest to get along with, the number devil represents the importance of having someone to inspire students and challenge them with interesting problems.
As a student of math myself, I did not enjoy the number devil using different words to describe familiar mathematical concepts. Prime numbers are referred to as prima donnas, square roots as rutabagas, factorials as vrooms, and so on. In addition, the book misses a key opportunity to teach students about some of the greatest mathematicians the world has ever seen, such as Gauss, Bernoulli, Euler, Archimedes, Cantor, and Fibonacci. Instead, Enzensberger describes these pioneers in strange ways with different silly names, perhaps in an attempt to oversimplify the book. With that being said, a wide variety of mathematical topics are explored throughout the book, making it a fantastic choice for any age range. It is simple enough to be understood by the youngest readers, but still covers material that many college graduates may not even be familiar with. The book can either be used as a teaching tool, or as an outside read with the ability to display various applications of math. In my opinion, it works perfectly as the latter. With vibrant, colorful illustrations of number gardens, Fibonacci rabbits, never-ending numbers, Pascal’s Triangle, and Plantonic solids to help explain some of the more difficult topics, The Number Devil is sure to keep readers engaged.
I would highly recommend this book to parents or teachers that want to get their kids reading mathematical literature and interested in the marvelous world of numbers, although it is a fun, quick, and easy read for all. Probably ideal for young teenagers, but it can be just as enjoyable for adults with any level of prior math knowledge. The Number Devil excels as at being a fun fiction read, while also having the potential to teach and be a strong educational tool.

14 people found this helpful

Helpful

KCToon

3rd copy - what else can I say?

Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2019

Verified Purchase

My son loved this book when he was seven, and now my 7-year-old grandson loves this book. Not only that, but my son at 29 remembered the chapter on Fibonacci numbers, could tell me what they were and how to construct them and precisely where they are found in nature. My grandson now compares the various sizes of infinities, but fails to understand how a finite universe could contain an infinity of infinities. A good question from a 7-year-old.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

cute but a little scattered

Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2014

Verified Purchase

I saw this on the shelf at the Museum of Mathematics and bought it for my daughter, who is an advanced third grade math student. I think my son, who is two years younger, will like it too when the time comes. The tone is conversational, the graphics are cute and numerous. The point of the book is not didactic, but rather to intrigue children so that they might investigate various areas of mathematics (infinite numbers, fibonacci sequences, prime numbers, the nature of mathematical proof, etc.) on their own. I think it may succeed in this, and I will revise my review if I see it has any distinct encouraging or discouraging effect on my kids.

Enzenberger gives new names to most of the topics under discussion, in some cases shortening them ("bonacci" number rather than "fibonacci"), and in some cases lengthening them ("prima donna" numbers rather than "primes"). Famous mathematicians have their names translated into English, so Felix Klein becomes "Mr. Small". I'm not sure why he did this, it's not clear to me that it helps and, if the point is to encourage children to seek out more material elsewhere, I think it might hurt if they're asking about it with made-up names that appear nowhere else.

16 people found this helpful

Helpful

Warrior Princess

Number Theory for Kids: Fun and Exciting

Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2013

Verified Purchase

Number theory is an exciting area of math that many schools do not teach, or do not teach enough, because they focus on basic math skills. And, quite often, basic can mean boring, especially for students who have mastered those basic skills.

This book (and the game with the same title) presents such concepts as Fibonacci numbers, Pascal's triangle, natural numbers, infinite series, factorials, permutations, and other fun concepts in an interactive and engaging way.

I bought this book for my son, and we both reading it and learning (or reviewing, in my case!) a lot of these concepts. The only issue I had with this book (and the game) is that the authors make up some of their own terms instead of using the terms accepted by mathematicians.

There are not too many books or games that present math as fun and exciting, and this is one of them. If you have any interest in math (or would like to develop such interest in yourself or your kids), try it! You won't regret it.

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Quick Brown Fox

Inspires the recreational mathematician in you

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 30, 2020

Verified Purchase

Bought for a six year old, as bedtime reading. Three years later, he still re-reads it several times a year and takes it everywhere. It has inspired a love of mathematics in him, and he has become quite the young recreational mathematician.
The renamed concepts and words made it easier for him to digest the story first as a work of fiction then, as he re-read it, as an introduction to the fun bits in maths. Wish there were more books like this.

Seb

Brilliant book helping to understand maths with a wicked storyline ;)

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 6, 2016

Verified Purchase

This book is amazing for kids who have a real natural interest in maths and want to consolidate their number understanding.

I'm a primary teacher and bought this for my library and most of the kids love the storyline and have enjoyed learning through it, and have asked lots of brilliant questions to further their understanding!

2 people found this helpful

cojo60

Excellent book for budding maths wizards.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 12, 2020

Verified Purchase

It was for my Grandson who is a bit of a maths wizard. A book full of very useful information that I wish I had when I was at school.

Mr D Speight

Great product.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 23, 2019

Verified Purchase

Great product.

Jeff

Makes Maths more interesting

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 9, 2016

Verified Purchase

This is very engaging book. My 8 year enjoys reading it. The author has done a good job of bringing various mathematical concepts together in an easily understood and memorable manner for the younger reader.

See all reviews