The Cat in Numberland
Grade 3-5–In this clever tale, Mr. and Mrs. Hilbert are the proprietors of the Hotel Infinity, an establishment for Numbers of all sizes. The odds and evens live happily together, playing games like addition and subtraction until Zero comes to call. Mr. H refuses to admit him on the grounds that, Zero is not a Number…Numbers serve to count things. His wife disagrees, and she offers 10, 100, and 1000 as cases in point. Defeated, her husband agrees to give him a room, but which one? The hotel is fully occupied. Zero suggests each guest move up one. Everyone is happy but the cat, who ponders how a hotel that was already full could suddenly accommodate another guest. Zero tells the others about a place called Alphabet where the Letters live. They cannot play the games we know, but they know others that are very interesting…. When they invite the Letters for a sleepover, Zero proposes that he move to Room 26, and the others follow suit. Again, the cat cannot fathom where all these extra rooms have come from. In the end, the Hotel Infinity becomes famous far and wide as it is always full, yet there is always room. The clever black-line and crosshatch sketches portray the number and letter people as comical aliens. Readers will particularly enjoy poring over the scenes of the numbers at play as they search for recognizable patterns and number sentences. This easy chapter book explains concepts such as odd and even, the four operations, fractions, patterns, algebra, and infinity. More importantly, it presents a difficult, sometimes-feared subject, in a fun, lighthearted way.–Barbara Auerbach, New York City Public SchoolsCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.