Today is “Nontraditional Nonfiction Monday,” as declared by host Travis at 100 Scope Notes. Problem is, my reviews are always sort of non-traditional (scroll down to read my musings on writing book reviews). So, how does a non-traditional book reviewer write a review that’s nontraditional for her?

I got it: farm out the review to Engineer Husband. Engineer Husband is an expert on math and kids, having helped out in the math education of eight urchins (no math majors yet, but he’s still hoping). The book is part of a series called Math Adventures, and I was sent a copy for review.

Without further ado:

Pythagoras and the Ratios is the story of how young Pythagoras helps his cousins prepare for a musical contest by tuning their musical instruments (pipes and lyres). Hearing the difference between the pleasant sound of his own pipes and the unpleasant sound of his cousin’s leads Pythagoras to make observations about the ratios of length of the six pipes in the instrument. By means of measurement and simple mathematics, Pythagoras makes an important discovery and verifies it by modifying his cousin’s pipes so that they are in tune with his own. He next applies his newly-discovered principle to tune the lyres of his other cousins, also with good results. Beautiful color illustrations compliment the story line that includes the following character-building elements: children’s responsibility to obey their parents in completing assigned chores, the helpful attitude that Pythagoras displays toward his cousins, the thankful spirit that Pythagoras shows toward his cousins for their help with one of his chores, the optimistic attitude that Pythagoras displays in response to disaster when he breaks his own instrument in rushing to the musical contest, and, of course, curiosity coupled with observation and the use of mathematics to see relationships that help us understand and explain nature. The author includes a brief scientific explanation at the end of the book.

And that’s how an engineer writes a book review. Just the facts, m’am.