Popular Science Children's Review - The Essential Aritmetricks

Home Authors Books Subjects Events Software Features Links Newsletter Gifts Blog Write Review What's New

Review - The Essential Arithmetricks - Kjartan Poskitt

Here's a strange result. When we reviewed Kjartan Poskitt's Murderous Maths, it didn't quite make the four stars, because, the reviewer supposed, it was dealing with basics, and they couldn't be made quite as exciting as... well, the exciting stuff.

Yet here in a book that could hardly be more basic - it only really deals with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division - Mr Poskitt has produced a better book.

There seem to be too possibilities. Either it's because Murderous Maths was presumably the first in the series, and Poskitt has got better with practice, or it's because it's often easier to make a book interesting on a specific topic than on a wide ranging overview. Either way, this one works very well.

Laying the mathematical groundwork is recognised as being essential these days, and sadly enough, by the time readers reach the age range of this book, many of them still have grasped the basics of arithmetic. Not any more - Poskitt to the rescue! It's funny, well illustrated by Daniel Postgate (any relation to Oliver Postgate of Noggin the Nog and Captain Pugwash fame?), and relentlessly informative.

There's one of the best attempts to make times tables approachable I've ever seen, and even long division doesn't look too frightening. Later on there's a diversion into the history of money, but that's quite fun, and as the book says, a lot of the everyday arithmetic that matters to as all involves cash.

The only slight irritation comes when we're dealing with a subtraction like 371-4, which can cause fear and trembling when you first try to take 4 away from 1. Poskitt illustrates this by launching into one of his Italian American mobster stories, which are probably the weakest part of these books. How the subtraction works is revealed in the story, but only in quite an indirect way. There really should be a reinforcer after the story that makes it clear where the extra 1 to turn the 1 at the end of 371 into 11 came from.

Don't worry, by the way, if your book's cover says "MURDEROUS MATHS Tricks of the Trade" (see Amazon.com illustration above) - it's the same book, it has just been retitled, presumably to avoid confusion with other Murderous Maths titles.

Oh and one last good bit of news - not a single upside down answer to a question, our most hated feature of the Scholastic maths and science books. Yee-hah!

Only in paperback. Not available in the US, but can be shipped from the UK for a few dollars more.

Reviewed by Brian Clegg

* Our age range recommendation is an estimated guide, but individual readers outside the range could still enjoy the book!

DISCLAIMERS

This site has no connection with Popular Science magazine or other sites and publications with a similar name.

Much of the content of this site is written by popular science writers or friends of popular science writers. Inevitably many of the reviews in such a small community are written by or about someone we know. We always aim to be impartial in our reviews, but there is a connection which we need make clear, as there is no intention to deceive. The content of any review or article is solely the opinion of the author and should not be read or understood on any other basis. The site exists to promote popular science writing and popular science authors and for this reason should be considered promotional material, just as the editorial reviews in an online bookshop or the blurb on the back of a book should be considered promotional.

The website should not be eaten or used where it can come into contact with water.

Disagree with our review? Want to comment on a feature? Contact us at info@ popularscience.co.uk - have your say!

Part of the site