Sherman K. Stein

This book would make a fantastic middle school gifted and talented textbook. I'm thinking a summer enrichment class. Each class or two, cover one of the 8 chapters, having the students do the "experiments" individually and in small groups to get a good understanding of the central question, then talking through the proof together, prompting the students to figure it out for themselves, and then sending them home to read the proofs and solidify their understanding of mathematical reasoning (and how straightforward and unscary proofs are). Perfect.

Outside that application, I don't see much point for this book. It purports to explain some basic points in mathematics to people who never got beyond high school math, but I don't see that that audience would be interested in the book. There aren't very many explanations of "and this is actually relevant because" -- though I'm sure the author thought he was putting them in, they fit very much a mathematician's idea of applications, not a lay person's. For anyone who has been exposed to some math since high school, it's review, and not particularly entertaining review at that. And that is why it needs a teacher and a junior high school audience. A good teacher can make the material come alive to students who don't know yet that math is beautiful or that there are multiple sizes of infinity. Bang, a five star class with a perfect textbook.… (mehr)