Heiligman, D (2013). The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdös. New York, NY: Roaring Book Press.
Summary: This is the true story of Paul Erdös, who grew up in Hungary, but later in life became a world traveler. He was a genius in math, but completely inept at caring for himself. With the help of his mother, friends and colleagues, he was able to focus on his love of math his entire life. His connections with so many mathematicians enabled his ability to collaborate, and share his ideas. He also made great contributions to the field, creating new areas of study in math. .
Reading Level:
Common Core State Standards / ELA
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4-5.1, 2, 4, 6
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4-5.9
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4-5.7
Common Core State Standards / Math
4.OA.1-5
4.G.1-3
Curriculum Suggestions:
Related Links:
Awards:
Tags: contemporary, elementary, picture books, historical, nonfiction, STEM
Summary: This is the true story of Paul Erdös, who grew up in Hungary, but later in life became a world traveler. He was a genius in math, but completely inept at caring for himself. With the help of his mother, friends and colleagues, he was able to focus on his love of math his entire life. His connections with so many mathematicians enabled his ability to collaborate, and share his ideas. He also made great contributions to the field, creating new areas of study in math. .
Reading Level:
- Quantitative: Lexile 550
- Qualitative: Grade 4 / Medium-High. This biography is moderately to very complex because of the vocabulary, mathematical references, symbols and cultural knowledge. Negative numbers, prime numbers, infinity, and theorems are academic terms discussed in this seemingly simple biography. The illustrations are plentiful helping carry the density of the text, even though they too sometimes show complicated mathematical operations, a graph for the Erdös number, and other information not conveyed in the text. Because of his worldy travels, there are visual references to landmarks that young readers may not recognize.
- Content Area: Language Arts, Math
Common Core State Standards / ELA
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4-5.1, 2, 4, 6
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4-5.9
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4-5.7
Common Core State Standards / Math
4.OA.1-5
4.G.1-3
Curriculum Suggestions:
- In groups, Google map Paul's hometown to 2-3 other cities of students' choice. They can calculate the distance between each city, separately and together.
- Compare and contrast his life with another great mathematician
Related Links:
Awards:
- Cook Prize Winner; 2014
- NCTE Orbis Pictus Award Honor Book, 2014
- ALA Notable 2013
Tags: contemporary, elementary, picture books, historical, nonfiction, STEM