The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos

This informational picture book told the story of Paul Erdos, a boy who loved math and grew up to become one of the greatest mathematicians in the world. Paul was a typical child who hated school and hated rules. He wanted to do his own thing and do it his way. Paul was content staying at home with his mom and Fraulein, his nanny. He could do math all day and every day then. When he got a little older, he invented his own way of life. Paul traveled the world sharing his knowledge of math and numbers. As he got older, the more his life became filled with not only math, but with friendships he had made because of it. Eventually, he passed away while he was doing math at a meeting. Paul Erdos was a man of numbers and one that made an impact on every one he met.

A common theme that I have realized with informational picture books is that if the story is about a person, they start out with them as a child. I think this is very important for children to see. It gives them a way to connect with the person immediately. I like how this book highlights numbers and math specifics. It discusses Erdos numbers, prime numbers, infinity, negative numbers, and formulas. For some of them it explains how to find the answer while others it gives examples. The last page in the entire book is my favorite. It has buildings and children from everywhere in the world surrounding Paul. Each building is made up of numbers and the children even have numbers on them. It supports a multicultural classroom and this book could be used to slide into many different topics. Students could be given one of the buildings from the last page and do research about what it is and where it is from. They can then find out how math was applied to it in order to be built. This book portrays math in a way that is fun and applicable to every student. 

The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos

Author: Deborah Heiligman

Illustrator: LeUyen Pham

Year Published: 2013