Monday, January 22, 2018

Math City by Ahmad Amani, illustrated by Mehdi Anoshivani

I am one of those many people who has a lifelong fear of mathematics brought about by some shockingly bad teaching at primary school that left me unprepared for the horrors of algebra, geometry and worse once I got to secondary school. I can still vividly remember the nightly tears as my dad tried patiently to help me understand my maths homework (he was unsuccessful). Despite trying extraordinarily hard, I failed my maths mock O’ Level exam and so, to everyone’s relief, I was not allowed to take the exam. I have so far managed to get through life without the qualification and am pretty certain that I would fail it again even today – some things are just not meant to be.  Given my problem, I approached this rather quirky young adult novella with some trepidation. The idea of living in something called ‘Math City’ sounded like my worst nightmare but perhaps reading about it might help me to feel more comfortable with the subject?