For fans of the Sir Cumference series with coordinate geometry on their mind, here is the seventh installment in this fun look at math and language.
While riding through the forests of Angleland, cousins Per and Radius realize they are lost and are desperate for a map to guide them home. Soon they come across a mysterious house in the hills. Inside they find a map to a treasure belonging to Xaxon Yellowbearyd, the fiercest Viking warrior of his time. Per and Radius must decode the strange numbered grid on the map, while trying to steer clear of the pack of bungling bandits who are on their tail. Will they find the treasure in time?
Cindy Neuschwander delivers yet another intriguing math adventure featuring the well-known characters of Angleland. Readers will enjoy following Per and Radius in their quest while learning how coordinate geometry relates to everyday life. Wayne Geehan's beautiful illustrations offer a bit of comic relief, while also clearly demonstrating the concepts explored in the story.
Cousins Per and Radius hunt for treasure by unraveling a Viking mapmaker's clues: a series of coordinates (x, y) that pinpoint locations on the Viking's map grid. Highway robbers, channeling the Keystone Kops, chase the cousins around, but this subplot comes off as rather superfluous. Acrylic paintings with a medieval setting illustrate this introduction to coordinate (a.k.a. Cartesian) planes.
In the seventh addition to the Sir Cumference series, cousins Per and Radius are lost in the medieval countryside when they discover a map decorated with two hand "axes" featuring X and Y coordinates. The map promises to lead them to treasure belonging to Viking Xaxon Yellowbearyd. As Per and Radius follow the map on horseback, they discover additional X and Y coordinate clues left by Xaxon, which readers can help them locate on the large map. Outwitting a gang of bandits, Per and Radius follow the last coordinates to Xaxon's ghost, who gives them the treasure (in the form of more maps). Neuschwander does an admirable job of injecting humor (namely, some groan-inducing puns) and action (bandits! ghosts!) into this explanation of coordinates and axes, and Geehan's thickly worked paintings contribute some drama of their own. Ages 8-11. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.