I’m always on the lookout for new books to use in my classroom.  Not the ordinary books that are on display in every bookstore chain, but books written in interesting ways about interesting topics.  A lot of the books I choose are non-fiction or based on true lives or true events.

I recently came across The Boy Who Loved Math: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos, a biography of  a mathematician from Hungary who died in 1996.  I had never heard of Paul Erdos–and yet, he seems to be quite well known in math circles.  Two of my favorite things about this short, rich picture book are the emphasis on Paul’s passion for math–I can’t imagine what his life would have been like if he had been born into a family that didn’t appreciate his single-minded passion for math!–and the illustrator’s ample and strategic use of math concepts and theories into the illustrations.

This is a book I will read many more times before I bring it into my classroom–and I know my students will pore over the illustrations once they get a chance to take a closer look.  I’m already curious about harmonic primes and amicable numbers.  I love when a picture book piques my learning!

What books have you come across that you can’t wait to share?