Author: Hans Magnus Enzensburger
Title: The Number Devil
Rating: 5
Reviewer: TK Grade: 7
Review:
The Number Devil was about a boy named Robert who met a number devil in his dreams and went on many adventures. His attitude toward the number devil changes as the book goes on. Robert also learns a lot.
The book starts with the author explaining that Robert's dreams are things that Robert wants, and things like going on an endless slide and a fish devouring him. But, in a dream, he meets the number devil. At first, Robert does not believe that there is a number devil, but as the dream goes on, he learns a few things about numbers, like how you can make the numbers 1 through 9 by using only ones.
The next chapter starts with Robert's second dream with the number devil, and he learns that 0 is the most important of all numbers and that it was the last number to be discovered. Because the Romans did not have a 0, their number system was very complicated. That led to confusions in what the number really was, because they did not have a place value.
The third chapter is about Robert's third dream, in which he learns more about zero, like how a number multiplied by zero is always zero, so when trying to find prime numbers, he must never use zero or one to see if any numbers are not divisible by those numbers. He also learns some interesting things about numbers.
In the next chapters, Robert learns a lot about numbers and makes friends with the number devil. He also thinks about numbers more than often, and his mother begins to get worried about him. In the end, though, he gets something that he never expected.
This book is great for kids who do not know a lot about numbers. From the beginning to the end, you will love how the author makes you like math in a fun way.
9/6/04
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