Math and Magic Book Series

"Math and Magic in Wonderland" is an interactive math adventure novel where twin sisters, Lulu and Elizabeth, embark on a journey to a world filled with characters from Lewis Carroll's poetry.  They are guided through this realm by Mrs. Magpie's Manual of Magic for Mathematical Minds.  Readers are invited to play along with the girls as they solve each riddle to see if they have what it takes to outsmart the despised Bandersnatch and become Mathematical Royalty.

I authored this novel to reveal the magic and wonder of mathematics to young readers (and their parents) through an intriguing story.  It really works!  My own children are enthralled as we read each chapter and try out the activities.  We've explored palindromes, solved magic squares, designed our own tessellations, calculated our ages on Mars, played with word ladders, discovered the power of exponents, and so much more.

The best part of the book is that it can be read over and over again and enjoyed on so many different levels.  For example, my children are too young at the moment to recognize the reference to "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" or pick up on the joke about irrational numbers, but they are being exposed to all those concepts (along with advanced vocabulary, history of famous mathematicians, hidden puns, etc..) and one day it will all 'click'.  By inspiring my children to look at the world like mathematicians, I'm planting the seeds for them to ask questions, follow their own rabbit trails, and become future problem solvers.

My family has been having such a wonderful time playing along with my math adventure novel, that I just have to share it with others.  I invite other families to join us in the virtual Math and Magic Book Club as we read through the book and "play math" together...


Full Book Club Schedule

Here is the Book Club / Math Circle schedule (you can join any time):

 Week of August 1st:

• Book Club Kick-Off Party!
• Read Chapter 1: Mrs. Magpie's Manual
• Alliteration
• Memorizing digits of Pi
• Palindromes
• Calculating your age on other planets

Week of August 8th:

• Read Chapter 2: Magic Square
• Making tangrams
• Acute, obtuse, and right angles
• Magic squares
• Adding consecutive numbers using Gauss's trick

Week of August 15th:

• Read Chapter 3: Secret Codes
• Word permutations
• Cartesian coordinates
• Operations on odd and even numbers 

Week of August 22nd:

• Read Chapter 4: Rabbit Trails
• Drawing a perfect circle
• Making a compass
• Finding the center of a circle
• Exploring Pi
• Famous mathematicians who followed rabbit trails

Week of August 29th:

• Read Chapter 5: Two Worlds Join
• Mobius strips
• Fractals
• Tessellations

Week of September 5th:

• Read Chapter 6: River Crossing
• River Crossing Problems
• Build a boat and explore buoyancy

Week of September 12th:

• Read Chapter 7: Seven Bridges
• Seven Bridges of Königsberg problem
• The power of exponents
• Word ladders
• Thales's method for calculating the height of an object

Week of September 19th:

• Read Chapter 8: Veracity
• Truth-tellers and liars
• Finding a fake coin using a balance scale
• Archimedes buoyancy principle

Week of September 26th:

• Read Chapter 9: To Catch a Thief
• John Napier's Rooster
• Doubling pennies and calculating exponents
• Towers of Hannoi

Week of October 3rd:

• Read Chapter 10: The Vorpal Sword
• Square numbers
• Prime numbers
• Fibonacci Sequence
• Relativity and time dilation
• Acrostic poems

Week of October 10th:

• Read Chapter 11: Two Great Powers
• Book Club Finishing Party with Prizes!