Blockhead: The Life of Fibonacci

Math lover or not, readers should succumb to the charms of this highly entertaining biography of medieval mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci. You can call me Blockhead. Everyone else does, opens the lighthearted narrative. As an adult, he works out a math problem that involves reproducing rabbits and discovers a pattern that repeats itself in nature, which becomes the sequence of numbers that now bears his name. Hence, his obsession is vindicated: All my life people had called me Blockhead because I daydreamed about numbers. But how could that be bad? Mother Nature loved numbers too! D'Agnese's colloquial tone (King Frederick II calls Fibonacci a smart cookie) lures readers into the story and even invites them to ferret out patterns in the illustrations. Atop dappled backgrounds, O'Brien's delicate swirls and hatch marks echo the mathematical patternsanother graceful connection between math and the real world in which children live. Ages 69. "(Apr.)" Copyright 2010 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

Gr 25Leonardo does his math problems so quickly that he has plenty of time to look out the window and count other things in nature. His teacher, however, chastises him for daydreaming and the other students call him a "blockhead." Only his father's advisor, Alfredo, understands that Leonardo has a fascination with numbers, a love that will eventually help him become the "greatest Western mathematician in the Middle Ages." As an adult, Fibonacci imagines the figure of Alfredo continuing to help him refine his theories. Although the book is presented as a biography, the author states that "little is known about the life of]Leonardo Fibonacci" and no sources are listed. Entertaining in the vein of the "You Wouldn't Want to Be" series, this lighthearted introduction to Fibonacci's ideas will inspire young math lovers and perhaps point them toward more scholarly explorations. The illustrations have a medieval look to them but without any stiffness or fussiness. They include many touches of humor and are well suited to the story. Painted with a broad pointillist style detailed with pen and ink, the pictures incorporate many visual references to Fibonacci's work, such as swirling features suggestive of the spiral, a key element in the mathematician's theories of nature."Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, VA" Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

"Charming and accessible..." —The New York Times Book Review

"* The lively text includes touches of humor; Emperor Frederick called him 'one smart cookie.' O'Brien's signature illustrations textured with thin lines re-create a medieval setting." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Math lover or not, readers should succumb to the charms of this highly entertaining biography of medieval mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci." —Publishers Weekly

"D'Agnese's introduction to medieval Europe's greatest mathematician offers both a coherent biographical account—spun, with some invented details, from very sketchy historical records—and the clearest explanation to date for younger readers of the numerical sequence that is found throughout nature and still bears his name." —Booklist

"This lighthearted introduction to Fibonacci's ideas will inspire young math lovers and perhaps point them toward more scholarly explorations." —School Library Journal

"[An] engaging, kid-friendly look at Fibonacci and his eponymous numerical sequence... The book has some clever tongue-in-cheek humor, and D'Agnese does readers a favor by clearly explaining Fibonacci's breeding rabbits scenario... Throughout the book, O'Brien's illustrations are textured with swirls and spirals—a whimsical homage to the man who discovered, as he believed, 'the numbers Mother Nature uses to order the universe.'" —Horn Book

"Young listeners should get the gist of Fibonacci's work, and they can test their skills at identifying numbers in the Fibonacci sequence by looking for examples tucked throughout the artwork." —Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books