Murderous Maths series product reviews

I was given The Secrets of Sums to review.

When these books first came up for review I did a bit of research to see whether they would be suitable for my 7.5 year old. I couldn't find all that much information so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect.

Upon reading the book my first thought was wether it was aimed at children or adults. I found some of the sums to be absolutely mind boggling! I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the best with numbers but if I can't understand it I'm not sure how a young person is supposed to. It definitely wasn't suitable for my son and is aimed at children 9 years and up - even so I felt like some of the language and topics weren't entirely appropriate even for that age group (kissing, encouraging the use of naughty words).

However, the book did have some good points too. The majority of the book was written in an interesting and humorous way and I really appreciated the effort to make maths and numbers more appealing. The book works its way up from addition and subtraction to times tables, division and even fractions. Most of it is clear and concise but it's never easy dealing with numbers and some parts were a bit confusing. I really liked the the times table chart and now I want to get one printed to help my son learn his times tables.

It wouldn't be my first choice when choosing an educational book but I'm sure my son will have some fun with it when he's old enough to understand it.

We received the Murderous Maths: All shapes and sizes by Kjartan Poskitt. I wasn't really too sure what to expect and for some reason had thought it might be a novel type book that my Miss Eight would enjoy. Well its not. This is pretty much one of the most "makes sense of it all" books I have read when it comes to shapes and angles. Aimed at readers 9 years and above my Miss Eight definitely wasn't able to get enthused about this book but I am hoping to get it out again in a few months and start to tackle some of the easier concepts with her.

What I love about this book is that it has some great facts and some very easy to understand examples and explanations about what all the shapes are how angles are defined and really interesting ways of working out surface areas etc.

I so wish I had read a book like this when I was young as it has really helped me to understand some basic concepts in a very practical way. This book isn't just for children. I think most parents will learn a thing or too as well. I will definitely look out for the others in the series when we get our scholastic order forms as this is a very worthwhile series that will certainly make a difference in my ability to help my daughters with their maths. I highly recommend this book and hope you find it as interesting and useful as I have.

There is a Murderous Maths website - muderousmaths.co.uk - which is well worth a look also if you want more information.

I am reviewing "The Magic of Maths".

I got this thinking it could be full of some fun things to do with my son, this book is aimed at those readers aged nine and up, so it was a little beyond my sons current reading ability but that didn't stop it from gaining his attention and having him trying to figure out what the words were. He was really hooked in by the illustrations that are on every single page of this book so I knew that it wouldn't be too hard to get him to sit down with me and explore the book and its contents.

I did find some of the directions to be a bit confusing and a few too many words were in there than necessary, at least in my opinion. My son really wanted to give some of the coin centric activities a go, and whilst it took a little while to figure them out and get the hang of them but we managed to learn a couple in the end and my son rather proudly did his new trick on his father. Not all the activities are as easy to figure out but we'll get there in the end and my son is loving looking at the book, taking his time.

I don't love this book, it's not my go to but I know my son is going to have some fun with it.

I got given "The Brain-Bending Basics" to review at home.

This book has some small activities which are easy to do, like cutting a strip of paper and linking it in a circle and other such small things, this book is more of a facts and figures book which is perfect for my who loves to ask questions and was full of them while I read through this with him. The good thing about most of what was in this book answered his questions right away and even though it is aimed at readers aged nine and up there weren't many words my son couldn't understand.

I've caught him a few times just flicking through the books, inspecting each page, because whilst he can't read he is loving the pictures on all the pages, they're fun and they easily catch his attention. I've been slowly reading through this with my son and we are both learning a good amount of facts and trivia with it, things that I had no clue about, such as how Friday the 13th is rather common and some fun maths history. My son has really enjoyed this book and so I know that it is one to hang on to for the years to come.