An astonishing, delightful, and illuminating celebration of mathe-magics.
What is this essential number, and why can we “never know” it?
Pi is everywhere, and an obsession for some. This book is, per the title, “big” (everything we could want to know) but never overwhelmingly so. Lehmann and Aubin explain the math and the name, while engagingly connecting the numbers to the average reader. The book includes pi brain-twisters (including accessible, tricky pizza-cutting techniques), jokes, and an “e-Pi-logue,” along with calculations, a glossary, and a chyron of definitions wherever useful. Puns, eminent mathematicians’ quotations, and geeky fun facts are scattered here and there, one being that the distribution of stars in the sky reflects pi. Along the way, the authors manage to tie in a swath of topics, some seemingly unrelated, among them cognitive bias, irrational numbers, decimals, and Babylonian and Egyptian math; they also profile Chinese, Indian, Persian, and later mathematicians, including Madhava of Kerala, who made calculus a working tool. The style is chatty and hip. Demonstrating the ubiquity of number sequences, for instance, the authors assert that you can find in pi sequences your own birth date, but also “your boring uncle’s, your pet iguana’s, Srinivasa Ramanujan’s, Isaac Newton’s, Beyoncé’s…” Sildre’s teal, red, and blue graphic novel–style illustrations, clever and amusing, are also instructive. Ada Lovelace, Katherine Johnson, Emma Haruka Iwao, and Maryam Mirzakhani appear in cameos. Even math-phobes will find this pi tasty and nourishing.
An astonishing, delightful, and illuminating celebration of mathe-magics. (educators’ QR code) (Nonfiction. 8-14)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9783039640898
Page Count: 88
Publisher: Helvetiq
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere.
This book is buzzing with trivia.
Follow a swarm of bees as they leave a beekeeper’s apiary in search of a new home. As the scout bees traverse the fields, readers are provided with a potpourri of facts and statements about bees. The information is scattered—much like the scout bees—and as a result, both the nominal plot and informational content are tissue-thin. There are some interesting facts throughout the book, but many pieces of trivia are too, well trivial, to prove useful. For example, as the bees travel, readers learn that “onion flowers are round and fluffy” and “fennel is a plant that is used in cooking.” Other facts are oversimplified and as a result are not accurate. For example, monofloral honey is defined as “made by bees who visit just one kind of flower” with no acknowledgment of the fact that bees may range widely, and swarm activity is described as a springtime event, when it can also occur in summer and early fall. The information in the book, such as species identification and measurement units, is directed toward British readers. The flat, thin-lined artwork does little to enhance the story, but an “I spy” game challenging readers to find a specific bee throughout is amusing.
Friends of these pollinators will be best served elsewhere. (Informational picture book. 8-10)Pub Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-500-65265-7
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Contentwise, an arbitrary assortment…but sure to draw fans of comics, of science, or of both.
Flash, Batman, and other characters from the DC Comics universe tackle supervillains and STEM-related topics and sometimes, both.
Credited to 20 writers and illustrators in various combinations, the 10 episodes invite readers to tag along as Mera and Aquaman visit oceanic zones from epipelagic to hadalpelagic; Supergirl helps a young scholar pick a science-project topic by taking her on a tour of the solar system; and Swamp Thing lends Poison Ivy a hand to describe how DNA works (later joining Swamp Kid to scuttle a climate-altering scheme by Arcane). In other episodes, various costumed creations explain the ins and outs of diverse large- and small-scale phenomena, including electricity, atomic structure, forensic techniques, 3-D printing, and the lactate threshold. Presumably on the supposition that the characters will be more familiar to readers than the science, the minilectures tend to start from simple basics, but the figures are mostly both redrawn to look more childlike than in the comics and identified only in passing. Drawing styles and page designs differ from chapter to chapter but not enough to interrupt overall visual unity and flow—and the cast is sufficiently diverse to include roles for superheroes (and villains) of color like Cyborg, Kid Flash, and the Latina Green Lantern, Jessica Cruz. Appended lists of websites and science-based YouTube channels, plus instructions for homespun activities related to each episode, point inspired STEM-winders toward further discoveries.
Contentwise, an arbitrary assortment…but sure to draw fans of comics, of science, or of both. (Graphic nonfiction. 9-12)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77950-382-4
Page Count: 160
Publisher: DC
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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