Great informational book set out to change your perspective on math. With over one hundred puzzles, games, experiments, you can't help but grab a pencil and paper to try them out. The goal of this book is to show anyone at any age math can be fun!
I had to grab this book because most of my life I've made the famous quote, "I hate math!" I found this book a bit overwhelming at times with the pages being filled from top to bottom and every millimeter in between with words, pictures and numbers. It may be a bit much for younger children to try and absorb; however, the cartoons and diagrams may just be the items that hold their attention. I will share this with a few elementary school teachers that I call my "mentors", and share with my sons ages 11/14, but I don't see it being added to my collection.
As a classroom extension, the opportunites are endless. Pick a page and you have an addition to the math class for the day. Many of these pages could be used as "free work, downtime, extra credit" type of hand in assignment. The students could be assigned one page a week as the "challenge" of the week math problem or experiment.

This book is for nonbelievers of all ages. It was written especially for children who have been convinced by the attitudes of adults that mathematics is (1) impossible (2) only for bright kids (3) no fun at all anyway. This book says that maths is nothing more than a way of looking at the world and that it can be relevant to everyday life (Street Maths) and fun (How many sides does a banana have?). Hundreds of mathematical events, jokes, riddles, puzzles, investigations and experiments prove it!
Offbeat Books are a series of small books about big ideas, written and designed for children and adults together. They come from a group of Californian teachers, writers and artists who get together to work on producing stimulating material of a slightly offbeat nature for children. They believe learning only happens when it is wanted: that it can happen anywhere and doesn't require fancy tools. This book and others in the series are dedicated to anyone who thinks so too. If you enjoy this book you might also like:
Word Works
Blood and Guts
Beastly Neighbours
Thinking Science