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The Sand-Reckoner (Tom Doherty Associates Books) (2000)

by Gillian Bradshaw

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294988,696 (4.01)6
The Sand-Reckoner from author Gillian Bradshaw is a historical account that reimagines the life of one of ancient Greek's greatest minds. The young scholar Archimedes has just had the best three years of his life at Ptolemy's Museum at Alexandria. To be able to talk and think all day, every day, sharing ideas and information with the world's greatest minds, is heaven to Archimedes. But heaven must be forsaken when he learns that his father is ailing, and his home city of Syracuse is at war with the Romans. Reluctant but resigned, Archimedes takes himself home to find a job building catapults as a royal engineer. Though Syracuse is no Alexandria, Archimedes also finds that life at home isn't as boring or confining as he originally thought. He finds fame and loss, love and war, wealth and betrayal-none of which affects him nearly as much as the divine beauty of mathematics.… (more)
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Showing 1-5 of 7 (next | show all)

This is the story of Archimedes, the math genius. Because of his father's health, he has to return home to Syracuse away from wondrous Alexandria, home to the most advanced thinkers of the times.

It's a story of a man who just wanted to do geometry. Easily distracted, Archimedes would stop what he doing to do his calculations on the sand beneath his feet and get lost for hours. I have a found a soul mate (not that I have his math skills but I have been known to get lost in thought for hours at a time).

It's also a story about Marcus, his slave. Not as many reviews mentioned him. I actually kind of miss the past week of spending time with Archimedes and Marcus.

For Gillian Bradshaw, the author, she admitted at the end she struggled with incorporating math into the story but I think she did an admirable job. Math as a subject was there and it made sense and didn't muddle the story down into a math lesson.

( )
  wellington299 | Feb 19, 2022 |
My children and I read this together as part of the Building Your Library Level 8 curriculum.

We loved reading this book. It's perhaps a little melodramatic at times, but the characters seemed realistic and Archimedes seemed more real to us than he had when we'd read about him other places. It's difficult to imagine what life was like in ancient times, and books like this help to remind us that people from long ago were still people and, despite different customs and hygiene and social structures, not really all that different from people today.

We all appreciated the ending, too. We weren't particularly happy about it, but it was a good ending. ( )
  ImperfectCJ | Jun 28, 2020 |
2.5 stars. It's light, and decently entertaining, and I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more when I was ten. ( )
  mvayngrib | Mar 22, 2020 |
I really enjoyed this first reading of a Gillian Bradshaw book. Thought the characters were well drawn and the story well described. ( )
  VictoriaJZ | Sep 20, 2017 |
I have shiny sparkly hearts in my eyes. Plot I understand and historical accuracy and complex characters and they talk to each other and they have relationships with each other and these relationships change because there are consequences for actions and the hero is a math genius and omg the only thing I regret is that I cannot read this again for the first time. ( )
  cricketbats | Apr 18, 2013 |
Showing 1-5 of 7 (next | show all)
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The box was full of sand.
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The Sand-Reckoner from author Gillian Bradshaw is a historical account that reimagines the life of one of ancient Greek's greatest minds. The young scholar Archimedes has just had the best three years of his life at Ptolemy's Museum at Alexandria. To be able to talk and think all day, every day, sharing ideas and information with the world's greatest minds, is heaven to Archimedes. But heaven must be forsaken when he learns that his father is ailing, and his home city of Syracuse is at war with the Romans. Reluctant but resigned, Archimedes takes himself home to find a job building catapults as a royal engineer. Though Syracuse is no Alexandria, Archimedes also finds that life at home isn't as boring or confining as he originally thought. He finds fame and loss, love and war, wealth and betrayal-none of which affects him nearly as much as the divine beauty of mathematics.

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