The Number Devil

Maths is fun when u read this

Received it today and my son already started loving it.

This is a very useful book, especially to those who are afraid of math. With a very simple story of a boy who is suffering from arithmophobia (some term I coined for "fear of math"), who is able to make friends with Math Devil and crosses through several hurdles in learning that numbers can be his friends, rather than dangerous entities!

It's one of my favourite and I can read it as many times to know what love and hate for maths is like

The best book for kids or adults to learn maths. You can also learn ‘Raise to the power’.

Nice

I read this together with my son last summer. It is surprisingly hard to find math books that (1) take math seriously as an intellectual pursuit, (2) are accessible to young children, and (3) focus on aspects of math that are fun and interesting, rather than trying to grind away at well-trodden school curricula. This book excels at all three, and is funny and delightful to boot. The gruff irreverence and fiendish outbursts from the 'number devil' character are great comic relief, and the pacing works for young kids - the book presents each topic clearly and thoroughly, with perhaps some practical motivation, but doesn't dwell on any topic for too long. There are some wacky shenanigans, but the focus really is on the math. I'm not an expert on math for kids, but probably the topics are things that would usually work well for middle or older elementary school children? Prime numbers and the sieve of Eratosthenes, the number of possible arrangements of N things, Pascal's triangle, etc. Self-contained "math circle" type topics. However, in case anyone else is in a similar boat and looking for options, I should mention that my son was about 3.5 when we read this. He was just obsessed with math - counting into the thousands or by powers of 10 for fun, dressing up as a "googol-plex monster" for Halloween, etc. etc. This book worked very well for him. It was a favorite bedtime book for several weeks, and he would also read it independently during naptime. He was able to follow a majority of the math - basically all for the first 80 pages or so, then a bit less near the end - but still seemed to enjoy and get something out of chapters that were a bit above his head. I realize that 'math-obsessed toddlers ready for chapter books aimed at 8-12 year olds' is a small niche, but if you find yourself in it, this is one of the very few books that exists. And it's great. I will also mention that if your kid loves The Number Devil, you should definitely check out Richard Evan Schwartz. He has written three math graphic novels for kids (Really Big Numbers, Life on the Infinite Farm, and You Can Count on Monsters), and all are excellent.

The book tells a beautiful story to make children passionate about math! I recommend it!

I'm recently trying to get back into maths and decided to buy this book. It's surely for kids but either I found it really enjoyable and interesting. The author did a good job.

おうち英語や低年齢帰国子女の英語保持界隈では学校で九九が出てきた後かつ受験算数に浸かる前の8歳前後からMurderous Mathsと一緒に手に取る方がいらっしゃるようです、我が家も同じようなタイミングになりました。If You Made A MillionやHow Much Is a Million? （絵本）も同時に楽しんでいます。

School math and math exercises that become a chore to do can really ruin mathematics for many kids,-and this book is the antidote. I am nearing the last chapter with my 8 year old. As a kid, I loved math myself, but she started to show the first signs of hating math. I was searching for a way to show her the beauty in numbers and stumbled upon this book. We read it as bedtime story. She loves it!! We discuss the math in it together. Many of the concepts are way above her academic level, but it is a solid intro to the possibilities with numbers. I am sure she will reread it in a year’s time or more. Like many other books intended to young teenagers, it starts from series ( Pascal, Fibonacci). It explains infinity, irrational numbers, factorials, probability, golden ratio, etc through memorable stories, centered around the funny dreams of a little boy. Very enjoyable read. My only issue is the renaming of mathematical concepts to made-up silly names like “hopping” instead of square, “vroom” instead of factorial. That is quite unnecessary.