The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape
By Amy Alznauer
Illustrators
Illustrated by Anna Bron
Edition
By Amy Alznauer
Hardcover edition
Publisher Candlewick Imprint Candlewick ISBN9781536229479
The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape
18.99
SKU
9781536229479J
Ablaze with pattern and color, this ebullient picture book biography celebrates the intersection of art and science—through the life and lens of an extraordinary amateur mathematician.
When Marjorie Rice was a little girl in Roseburg, Oregon, in the 1930s, she saw patterns everywhere. Swimming in the river, her body was a shape in the water, the water a shape in the hills, the hills a shape in the sky. Some shapes, fitted into a rectangle or floor tilings, were so beautiful they made her long to be an artist. Marjorie dreamed of studying art and geometry, perhaps even solving the age-old “problem of five” (why pentagons don’t fit together the way shapes with three, four, or six sides do). But when college wasn’t possible, she pondered and explored all through secretarial school, marriage, and parenting five children, until one day, while reading her son’s copy of Scientific American, she learned that a subscriber had discovered a pentagon never seen before. If a reader could do it, couldn’t she? Marjorie studied all the known pentagons, drew a little five-sided house, and kept pondering. She’d done it! And she’d go on to discover more pentagonal tilings and whole new classes of tessellations. In this visually wondrous tribute, Anna Bron’s intricate art teems with patterns, including nods to M. C. Escher, and radiates the thrill of one woman’s discovery, playfully inviting readers to approach geometry through art—and art through geometry. Back matter offers more on the story of five and suggestions on how to discover a shape.
When Marjorie Rice was a little girl in Roseburg, Oregon, in the 1930s, she saw patterns everywhere. Swimming in the river, her body was a shape in the water, the water a shape in the hills, the hills a shape in the sky. Some shapes, fitted into a rectangle or floor tilings, were so beautiful they made her long to be an artist. Marjorie dreamed of studying art and geometry, perhaps even solving the age-old “problem of five” (why pentagons don’t fit together the way shapes with three, four, or six sides do). But when college wasn’t possible, she pondered and explored all through secretarial school, marriage, and parenting five children, until one day, while reading her son’s copy of Scientific American, she learned that a subscriber had discovered a pentagon never seen before. If a reader could do it, couldn’t she? Marjorie studied all the known pentagons, drew a little five-sided house, and kept pondering. She’d done it! And she’d go on to discover more pentagonal tilings and whole new classes of tessellations. In this visually wondrous tribute, Anna Bron’s intricate art teems with patterns, including nods to M. C. Escher, and radiates the thrill of one woman’s discovery, playfully inviting readers to approach geometry through art—and art through geometry. Back matter offers more on the story of five and suggestions on how to discover a shape.
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Standard MARC Records Cover Art |
Biography Elementary Plus (Grades 2-6)
Biography Elementary Plus
Biography Elementary Plus (Grades 2-6)
For Grades 2-6
Fascinating biographies and autobiographies will allow your elementary readers to look into the lives, thoughts, and accomplishments of the individuals who have shaped our world. And with 14 books per year, they'll discover a remarkable person each month.
14 books per Year
$297.36 per Year
Interests
Biographies, Diversity, Nonfiction, Science/STEAM
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