Medical Math

Children's Literature

Did you know how the word decibel got its name or why 20/20 vision is called just that? In these 48 pages, the reader is treated to a number of interesting facts about math. These facts relate to our understanding of the human body, from height and weight to hearing and life expectancy. Each chapter is devoted to a different aspect of how numbers are used to calibrate this "medical" data and includes arithmetic equations to lead the reader to the meaning behind the numbers. Readers will be able to identify directly with most of the examples. It is this identification that will add reading interest and motivate young people to use their own data (such as height and weight) to run a few calculations. Library bound, this volume is part of the "Math and My World" series; it includes color photos and simple graphics to highlight the text. The writing is conversational, as if the author is speaking directly to each member of his audience. The only weak link here may be found in some of the sidebars. A description of the pituitary gland, albeit interesting, seems distracting, perhaps irrelevant. An X-ray of the brain is shown in conjunction with a description of the hypothalamus, yet the location of the hypothalamus is not labeled, and the images look more like the results of a pet scan or a cat scan than an X-ray. But these are details. Overall, the book is educational, and it is a pleasure to read. 2004, Rourke Publishing, Ages 9 to 12.
—Susan Schott Karr