MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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Nena's Math Force (2005)
Susan Jarema
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This picture book for children, which is available for free online and also in print, tells the story of a girl who is upset when her math teacher requires the class to do arithmetic without a calculator. Her uncle, a wizard named El Mundo, and a team of expert witnesses including Archimedes, Galileo, Da Vinci, Mozart and Cleopatra argue that in math, it is important to understand what you're doing and to be able to do some basic mental computation.

Contributed by Anonymous

The plot seems extremely forced and the narrative is rather preachy. The story was quite dull for my students. The pictures weren't very interesting either.

More information about this work can be found at www.googolpower.com.
(Note: This is just one work of mathematical fiction from the list. To see the entire list or to see more works of mathematical fiction, return to the Homepage.)

Works Similar to Nena's Math Force
According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:
  1. The Number Devil [Der Zahlenteufel] by Hans Magnus Enzensberger
  2. A Gebra Named Al by Wendy Isdell
  3. Jayden's Rescue by Vladimir Tumanov
  4. Little Zero the Seafarer [Captain One's frigate] by Vladimir Levshin
  5. The Heroic Adventures of Hercules Amsterdam by Melissa Glenn Haber
  6. Lost in Lexicon: An Adventure in Words and Numbers by Pendred Noyce
  7. The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics by Norton Juster
  8. Black Mask of Al-Jabr by Vladimir Levshin
  9. Harvey Plotter and the Circle of Irrationality by Nathan Carter / Dan Kalman
  10. The Cinderella Theorem by Kristee Ravan
Ratings for Nena's Math Force:
RatingsHave you seen/read this work of mathematical fiction? Then click here to enter your own votes on its mathematical content and literary quality or send me comments to post on this Webpage.
Mathematical Content:
4/5 (1 votes)
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Literary Quality:
1/5 (1 votes)
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Categories:
GenreFantasy, Children's Literature,
MotifMath as Beautiful/Exciting/Useful,
TopicAlgebra/Arithmetic/Number Theory,
MediumAvailable Free Online, Picture Book,

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Where are the new works of mathematical fiction?: As you can see from this chronological listing, this database includes many works of mathematical fiction for each year from 1990 to 2025. Strangely, only two are listed for 2026, so far. Either less mathematical fiction is being published than in previous years or I'm just having more trouble finding it. If you know of any works of fiction that should be added to this list, especially recently published ones, please let me know. (Keep in mind that I do not include self-published works or children's fiction that just covers elementary mathematical concepts.) Thanks!

(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)