by Edward Einhorn
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| List Price: | $16.95 |
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Product Description
Ethan wakes up one morning with a talking cat on his head. The cat refuses to budge until Ethan wins a game of probability. Without looking, Ethan must pick out a dime from his coin collection or two matching socks from his dresser, or do something else improbable. A very improbable story about a challenging math concept.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Terrific book for reading or teaching!, 2008-06-10
My five year old really enjoys this book and it has been very useful in teaching her the challenging concept of probability. Also, the art work is terrific! I highly recommend it!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
A Must Read for Young Readers!!!, 2008-05-30
This charming and educational story is the perfect introduction to mathematics as it delves into the adventures of problem solving, the process of deductive reasoning and everyday decision making. All of which are basic life skills. The cat is a bit haunting, but he adds a fun drama to the piece and continues to challenge Ethan. It's a wonderful book for young readers to embrace with uncomplicated language and provides even a more indepth terminology section for any addition questions children might have. I completely recommend it as my little one is a HUGE fan!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
 A Very Improbable Story, 2008-05-16
Einhorn, Edward. A Very Improbable Story. Illustrated by Adam Gustavson. Charlesbridge. 2008.
This is a very humorous story that is sometimes slightly slowed by a valiant effort to explain the mathematical concept of probability. "One morning, Ethan woke up with a cat on his head. There was nothing improbable about that. Ethan's cat, Snowy, sometimes curled up there to sleep. But this was different. The cat on Ethan's head wasn't his cat!" This strange cat challenges Ethan to play "games of probability" with him and win, if Ethan wants the cat to get off his head so he can go and play a soccer match. Odds, the cat, tells Ethan to see if he can "pull out 2 matching socks without looking" from his drawer. "It's not as easy as it sounds," he warned, "With 10 pairs of socks, you have a very low probability of finding a match." Of course, Ethan loses this game since as Odds points out, "After you pulled out the first sock there were 19 single socks left. So there was only 1 sock out of 19 that would have let you win." Ethan responds with, "Is that what they call bad odds?" It takes several more games before Ethan finally wins thus enabling the concept of probability to be more fully explained. A paragraph on the final page names the two French mathematicians who developed the concept of probability, and then leaves the reader with a probability problem to solve. This clever well-done book that should appeal to children in grades K-4 may lose some readers as the details of probability are explained; however, others will enjoy playing along with the games.
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