As a digital subscriber, you’ll receive unlimited access to Horn Book web exclusives and extensive archives, as well as access to our highly searchable Guide/Reviews Database.
To access other site content, visit The Horn Book homepage.
To continue you need an active subscription to hbook.com.
Subscribe now to gain immediate access to everything hbook.com has to offer, as well as our highly searchable Guide/Reviews Database, which contains tens of thousands of short, critical reviews of books published in the United States for young people.
Thank you for registering. To have the latest stories delivered to your inbox, select as many free newsletters as you like below.
No thanks. Return to article
Friend of Numbers: The Life of Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan
40 pp.
| Eerdmans |
October, 2023 |
TradeISBN 9780802856081$17.99
(2)
4-6
Illustrated by
Satwik Gade.
Born in 1887 in southern India, Srinivasa Ramanujan would, before his untimely death in 1920, become one of the most influential mathematicians of the twentieth century. In an admiring view of an extraordinary individual, Narayanan chronicles Ramanujan's life: from curious young son of a clerk who sees numbers and patterns wherever he gazes, to his travels to Cambridge, England, where he impresses Europe's greatest mathematicians with his novel approaches to numerical thinking, and finally to his illness-induced return to India and death. The clear and succinct text explains Ramanujan's mathematical ideas in a thoroughly understandable manner. Gade's vivid digital art displays Ramanujan's unique mathematical daydreams for readers, helping them to begin to see the patterns that fascinated him. Numbers, patterns, graphs, and diagrams are scattered within most spreads, helping convey the idea that his mind never strayed from his obsession with numbers. Significant back matter (including an informative author's note, a glossary, and an explanation of magic squares) allows Narayanan to fully flesh out Ramanujan's continued importance to both the field of mathematics and the people of India.
Reviewer: Eric Carpenter
| Horn Book Magazine Issue:
November, 2023