Book Review: How many socks make a pair?

Review by Harriet Howard, age 12,

Woodgreen School

The book I choose to review is How many socks make a pair by RobEastaway. I really loved this book because of the excitement and amazement it gave me. It reveals to me a surprising yet beautiful world of maths. It’s astounding how much everyday maths we never think about and how totally accessible it is to all of us. The book made me feel like I’d been totally oblivious to the maths around me every day. For example, How many socks make a pair? , the answer isn’t two because if you take 2 socks out of your drawer you aren’t guaranteed to get a pair (if you have more than one type of socks). If you have N types of socks then you need to take out N+1 socks to guarantee a pair. To me, this is something that I hadn’t come across before reading this book, and it’s fascinating. From this book I have learned that maths isn’t boring but in fact crucial to our everyday lives. In addition, I’ve learned lots of stunning maths that I never knew before; when you multiply 1089 you actually form palindromes, 1×1089=1089, 9×1089=9801 and 2×1089=2178, 8×1089=8712 and so on . . . . . this is incredible. Also, this book is totally accessible to anyone no matter what your maths skills are because of its such easy to apply facts. I enjoyed all of this book and each of the individual facts had its own charm. From this book I have learnt lots of snippets of information and how much everyday maths there actually is around us. I really recommend this book to everyone.