Bedazzled!

I asked Maribou “what’s the word for ‘pleased and confused’?” and she told me that.

Anyway, I discovered two books that I will be giving out next year to our various nephews (given to another of our nephews and I was told that I needed to read them). The first is pretty much what it says on the tin: Introductory Calculus For Infants. It’s a very fast paced read that won’t really teach your child much about Calculus concepts, but it will remind mom and dad of the things they’ve forgotten over the last decade or two or three (and isn’t that the point of gifts like that?).

The other book is one that deals with issues of recursion and actually requires a great deal of setup (like involving scissors and a stapler and whatnot) before it’s actually properly readable… however, after you do the setup? It’s a *SPECTACULAR* book that will do a great deal to explain why it’s important to learn things. Andre Curse tells the story of Andre not wanting to go to school. When asked if he knows pretty much everything yet, he has to keep going back. Once he learns everything, he gets his diploma and, here’s a pretty big spoiler, encounters a problem… which he then has the tools to solve.

A great read with a great moral that doesn’t even feel preachy at all. You should totally get the first book so you can watch the parents react, and you should totally get the second book so you can read it with the niece/nephew.

So that’s my recommendation for you this week.