Sondermath

Welcome to my page collecting all my math-related reviews!

Years ago, I taught college math. Since becoming a librarian, I've got a special place in my heart for math-related books, and I'm collecting many favorites for all ages here.

April 16, 2024

Here's a review I wrote in 2021 and helped pick as a Mathical Book Prize Honor Book: The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss, by Amy Noelle Parks, is a sweet teen romance featuring a math genius girl with social anxiety - and her best friend who's loved her for years.

—Sondra Eklund

Web Resources

Mathematical Knitting:
Sonderknitting

Bedtime Math:
bedtimemath.org

Mathical Book Prize: mathicalbooks.org

Math Book Magic: mathbookmagic.com

Talking Math With Your Kids: talkingmathwithkids.com

Earliest Learners

Kitty & Cat: Bent Out of Shape, by Mirka Hokkanen

Some of These Are Snails, by Carter Higgins

1 Smile, 10 Toes, by Nelleke Verhoeff

What Will Fit?, by Grace Lin

Goodnight, Numbers, by Danica McKellar

How to Count to ONE, written by Caspar Salmon, illustrated by Matt Hunt

Crash! Boom! A Math Tale, by Robie H. Harris, illustrated by Chris Chatterton

Stack the Cats, by Susie Ghahremani

One Fox: A Counting Book Thriller, by Kate Read

Quack and Count, by Keith Baker

Early Numeracy

Counting

The Doorbell Rang, by Pat Hutchins

The Cookie Fiasco, by Dan Santat

How Many Jelly Beans? by Andrea Menotti, illustrated by Yancey Labat

Zero Zebras, by Bruce Goldstone

Too Many Pigs and One Big Bad Wolf, by Davide Cali and Marianna Balducci

8: An Animal Alphabet, by Elisha Cooper

Count the Monkeys, by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Kevin Cornell

Math Fables, by Greg Yang, illustrated by Heather Cahoon

100 Bugs! A Counting Book, by Kate Narita, pictures by Suzanne Kaufman

Monkey Time, by Michael Hall

Anno’s Counting Book, by Mitsumasa Anno

Anno’s Counting House, by Mitsumasa Anno

Comparing

Lia and Luís: Who Has More? by Ana Crespo, illustrated by Giiovan Medeiros

Balancing Act, by Ellen Stoll Walsh

Who Eats First? by Ae-hae Yoon, illustrated by Hae-won Yang

How Long Is a Whale? by Alison Limentani

How Much Does a Ladybug Weigh? by Alison Limentani

Critical Thinking

How Many? A Different Kind of Counting Book, by Christopher Danielson

Which Is Round? Which Is Bigger? by Mineko Mamada

Luna's Yum Yum Dim Sum, by Natasha Yim, illustrated by Violet Kim

Look, Grandma! Ni, Elisi!, by Art Coulson, illustrated by Madelyn Goodnight

Pattern Fish, by Trudy Harris, illustrated by Anne Canevari Green

Sam Sorts, by Marthe Jocelyn

I Know Numbers, by Taro Gomi

Bedtime Math, by Laura Overdeck

Bedtime Math: This Time It’s Personal, by Laura Overdeck

Bedtime Math: The Truth Comes Out, by Laura Overdeck

Elementary School Math

Number Sense

Everybody Counts, by Kristin Roskifte

A Million Dots, by Andrew Clements, illustrated by Mike Reed

Great Estimations, by Bruce Goldstone

Greater Estimations, by Bruce Goldstone

One Grain of Rice, by Demi

Bake Infinite Pie with X + Y, by Eugenia Cheng, illustrated by Amber Ren

Mapping and Measuring

Friends Beyond Measure, by Lalena Fisher

Mapping Sam, by Joyce Hesselberth

Millions to Measure, by David M. Schwartz, pictures by Steven Kellogg

Addition and Subtraction

Mice Mischief: Math Facts in Action, by Caroline Stills, illustrated by Judith Rossell

Do Not Open This Math Book, by Danica McKellar

Multiplication and Division

The Best of Times, by Greg Tang

The Times Machine, by Danica McKellar

Fractions

Piece = Part = Portion: Fractions = Decimals = Percents, by Scott Gifford, photographs by Shmuel Thaler

Fractions in Disguise, by Edward Einhorn, illustrated by David Clark

Fraction Frenzy, by Rob Colson

More Math-Related Fun

Molly and the Mathematical Mysteries, by Eugenia Cheng, illustrated by Aleksandra Artymowska

Mysterious Patterns: Finding Fractals in Nature, by Sarah Campbell

I See a Pattern Here, by Bruce Goldstone

That’s a Possibility! by Bruce Goldstone

Infinity and Me, by Kate Hosford, illustrations by Gabi Swiatkowska

Seven Golden Rings: A Tale of Music and Math, by Rajani LaRocca, illustrated by Archana Sreenivasan

Math at the Art Museum, by Group Majoongmul, illustrated by Yun-ju Kim

Prime Numbers

You Can Count on Monsters, by Richard Evan Schwartz

Number Facts

A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars, by Seth Fishman, illustrated by Isabel Greenberg

Just a Second, by Steve Jenkins

It’s a Numbers Game! Basketball, by James Buckley, Jr.

If…, by David J. Smith, illustrated by Steve Adams

If America Were a Village, by David J. Smith, illustrated by Shelagh Armstrong

Just the Right Size: Why Big Animals Are Big and Little Animals Are Little, by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Neal Layton

Critical Thinking

Which One Doesn’t Belong? by Christopher Danielson

Cao Chong Weighs an Elephant, by Songju Ma Daemicke, illustrated by Christina Wald

Anno’s Magic Seeds, by Mitsumasa Anno

Anno’s Mysterious Multiplying Jar, by Mitsumasa Anno

How Many Guinea Pigs Can Fit on a Plane? by Laura Overdeck

If Dogs Were Dinosaurs, by David M. Schwartz, illustrated by James Warhola

Picture Book Biographies

Maryam's Magic, by Megan Reid, illustrations by Aaliya Jaleel

The Boy Who Loved Math, by Deborah Heiligman

Nothing Stopped Sophie, by Cheryl Bardoe, illustrated by Barbara McClintock

The Boy Who Dreamed of Infinity, by Amy Alznauer, illustrated by Daniel Miyares

Hidden Figures, by Margot Lee Shetterly with Winifred Conkling, illustrated by Laura Freeman

Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci, by Joseph D’Agnese, illustrated by John O’Brien

Code Breaker, Spy Hunter, by Laurie Wallmark, art by Brooke Smart

Ada Byron Lovelace and the Thinking Machine, by Laurie Wallmark, illustrated by April Chu

Classified, by Traci Sorell, illustrated by Natasha Donovan

Upper Elementary & Middle School Math

What’s the Point of Math? by Ben Ffrancon Davis

Geometry Is as Easy as Pie, by Katie Coppens

Math Doesn’t Suck: How to Survive Middle School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail, by Danica McKellar

Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who’s Boss, by Danica McKellar

Codes and Ciphers

Create Your Own Secret Language, by David J. Peterson

Can You Crack the Code? A Fascinating History of Ciphers and Cryptography, by Ella Schwartz

Code Cracking for Kids with 21 Codes and Ciphers, by Jean Daigneau

Building and Making

Calling All Minds, by Temple Grandin

Girls Who Build, by Katie Hughes

How to Be a Coder, by Kiki Prottsman

It's a Numbers Game! Baseball, by James Buckley, Jr.

Critical Thinking

Really Big Numbers, by Richard Evan Schwartz

The Cat in Numberland, by Ivar Ekeland, illustrated by John O’Brien

Anno’s Hat Tricks, by Akihiro Nozaki and Mitsumasa Anno

Children's Novels

The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster

The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure, by Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Talia's Codebook for Mathletes, by Marissa Moss

Secret Coders (Graphic Novel Series), by Gene Luen Yang and Mike Holmes

Numbed! by David Lubar

In the Red, by Christopher Swiedler

AfterMath, by Emily Barth Isler

Much Ado About Baseball, by Rajani LaRocca

Biographies

Changing the Equation: 50+ US Black Women in STEM, by Tonya Bolden

Hidden Figures: Young Readers’ Edition, by Margot Lee Shetterly

High School Math

Edward Lorenz and the Chaotic Butterflies, by Robert Black

Hot X: Algebra Exposed, by Danica McKellar

Girls Get Curves: Geometry Takes Shape, by Danica McKellar

Money Out Loud, by Berna Anat

The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss, by Amy Noelle Parks

For Adults

Two Trains Leave Paris, by Taylor Marie Frey and Mike Wesolowski

Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences, by John Allen Paulos

How to Lie with Statistics, by Darrell Huff

Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception, by Charles Seife

How to Bake Pi: An Edible Exploration of the Mathematics of Mathematics, by Eugenia Cheng

X + Y: A Mathematician's Manifesto for Rethinking Gender, by Eugenia Cheng

Here’s Looking at Euclid, by Alex Bellos

Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

The Numbers Behind Numb3rs: Solving Crime with Mathematics, by Keith Devlin and Gary Lorden

Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World, by Matt Parker

How Charts Lie: Getting Smarter About Visual Information, by Alberto Cairo

How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking, by Jordan Ellenberg

Stories of People

In Code, by Sarah Flannery, with David Flannery

Bringing Down the House, by Ben Mezrich

Busting Vegas, by Ben Mezrich

Hidden Figures, by Margot Lee Shetterly

Born on a Blue Day, by Daniel Tammet

Struck by Genius, by Jason Padgett

Count Down: Six Kids Vie for Glory at the World’s Toughest Math Competition, by Steve Olson

Novels

Beyond the Limit, by Joan Spicci

The Sand-Reckoner, by Gillian Bradshaw

The Mathematician's Shiva, by Stuart Rojstaczer

The Calculating Stars, by Mary Robinette Kowal

Coloring Books

Patterns of the Universe, by Alex Bellos and Edmund Harriss

Visions of the Universe, by Alex Bellos and Edmunc Harriss

The Golden Ratio Coloring Book, by Steve Richards