Friend of Numbers: The Life of Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan

by Priya Narayanan, Satwik Gade (Illustrator)

Overview

The United States Board on Books for Young People (USBBY) Outstanding International Books List - PreK-2 (2024)

A memorable, inspiring introduction to a groundbreaking figure in STEM history.

Growing up in southern India during British rule, Srinivasa Ramanujan was fascinated by numbers: they made patterns only he could see. Soon he spent as much time as he could in the world of mathematics, exploring concepts and trying to publish his ideas. In 1914, twenty-six-year-old Ramanujan sailed to England to work with the acclaimed mathematician G.H. Hardy. Cambridge University was so different from home, but Ramanujan’s love of numbers kept him going. He had big questions to ask—and important discoveries to make!

This captivating biography follows the short but brilliant life of a man recognized as a genius in his time and our own. With bright, occasionally amusing art and compelling back matter, Friend of Numbers is an unforgettable portrait of one of history’s most incredible mathematical minds.

The Children’s Book Council Librarian FAVORITES List 3rd-5th Grade (2024)

Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute Mathical Book Prize for Grades 3-5 (2024)

National Science Teachers Association and the Children’s Book Council Best STEM Books Award List (2024)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802856081
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	10/17/2023
Series:	Spectacular STEAM for Curious Readers (SSCR)
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	219,442
Product dimensions:	9.50(w) x 10.50(h) x (d)
Age Range:	5 - 9 Years

About the Author

Priya Naranyanan is a writer, poet, and architect based in Ahmadabad City, India. While researching Friend of Numbers, she traveled to many places associated with Srinivasa Ramanujan, including his homes in Kumbakonam and Chennai, India, and in Cambridge, England. Visit Priya’s website at priyanarayanan.in and follow her on Twitter @moonspotting.

Satwik Gade is an artist and designer whose work is inspired by comics, Indian mythology, and Impressionist art. He lives in Chennai, India, where he is the political cartoonist for the newspaper The Hindu. Follow Satwik on Instagram @satwikgade.

Editorial Reviews

Booklist
“The first picture-book biography of Ramanujan available in America and created by an Indian writer and illustrator, this volume admires his brilliance, while helping children to understand aspects of the mathematician’s homeland.”

The Horn Book Magazine
“The clear and succinct text explains Ramanujan’s mathematical ideas in a thoroughly understandable manner. Gade’s vivid digital art displays Ramanujan’s unique mathematical daydreams for readers, helping them to begin to see the patterns that fascinated him.

From the Publisher

★ 08/01/2023

Gr 3–6—Spanning two continents and adroitly packing cultural information into its text and imagery, this story of Srinivasa Ramanujan opens with his childhood in India and ends with his untimely death at the age of 32 in England. Ramanujan grew up in rural India, fascinated by the patterns that he saw in daily life, discovering the language of mathematics therein and dreaming of following his true heart's goal of becoming a mathematician. Ramanujan grew up as a Brahmin in India and had to overcome barriers as he applied to study mathematics in England, took the leap to learn a new culture, and moved to Cambridge University to further his studies during the first world war. The story briefly mentions the difficulty Ramanujan had in assimilating into British culture, including the food, the cold weather, and being so far from India. The emotional depth of the story is shown through facial expressions done in brightly colored cartoon drawings with pen and ink. Interspersed with these drawings are visual representations of the mathematical concepts that fascinated Ramanujan. With roughly 50 words per page, the book uses Indian words for concepts and there is a glossary at the end to define terms, such as Brahmin. An afterword explains a few of Ramanujan's mathematical discoveries, as well as his importance among those of Indian descent. VERDICT A must-purchase for libraries, specifically for its handling of diversity and adversity among immigrants studying in higher education as well as its ability to show the childhood joy of discovering patterns and having that segue into higher mathematics.—Vi Ha

School Library Journal

★ 2023-07-13
A searching portrait of a clerk’s son whose fascination with numbers and number patterns led to renown.

Narayanan rises to the challenge of explaining this mathematician’s work in a nontechnical way by spinning her anecdotal picture of Srinivasa Ramanujan’s sadly abbreviated life around his more easily understood sense of wonder: “Like an artist exploring forms and colors or a poet exploring words and images, Ramanujan threw himself into exploring numbers.” That focus originated, she suggests, from an early consciousness of the patterns in his daily routines, like the repetitive Vedic chants and architectural structures of the nearby Sarangapani temple. A book of math problems left him “obsessed” with how numbers kept falling together into “patterns only he could see.” That phrase serves as a refrain for what came after as he struggled with both physical and cultural obstacles to leave India for faraway Cambridge University, where, fortunately, it didn’t take him long to make his mark before he died due to illness (tuberculosis, though this isn’t mentioned in the text) in 1920, at the age of 32. Gade artfully captures his subject’s keen, unselfconscious intelligence in lively views of a lad in a dhoti and, later (reluctantly donned), trousers staring intently at fanciful geometric figures and rows of numbers in strings, swirls, or tables to winkle out their secrets. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Inspirational reading even for audiences resolute in their math avoidance. (author’s note, patterns in numbers, sample problems to solve, glossary) (Picture book biography. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews