MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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The Cinderella Theorem (2014)
Kristee Ravan
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A very serious, mathematically inclined teenage girl is shocked to learn that her father is not dead as she had previously believed but rather is the ruler of an enchanted kingdom.

The no-nonsense, unimaginative mathematical stereotype of the protagonist may be useful in setting up the underlying psychological conflict of the plot, as a girl who never liked "fairy tales" essentially comes to live in one. However, I still worry that it will reinforce the false stereotype that mathematicians are somehow less capable of dealing with anything unusual than other people. For her, as with many fictional characters, math seems more like a security blanket to hide behind from anything that might cause discomfort than the powerful and interesting tool that I think it actually is.

I have not had a chance to really read the book, only to browse through the pages that are available for free on Amazon, but most of the "math" I saw took the form of pseudo-equations such as "1 life in the real world + 1 secret life in the fairy tale world = a double life" and "Disappearing Fathers = Mild Amounts of Shock".

Still, many of the readers who reviewed this book on Amazon had very positive things to say about it and I hope to have a chance to read it myself someday. (If you have read it, please write to me so that I can post your thoughts and comments here!)

Thanks to the author for bringing this book to my attention.

More information about this work can be found at www.amazon.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 The Cinderella Theorem
According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:
  1. The Heroic Adventures of Hercules Amsterdam by Melissa Glenn Haber
  2. The Shadow Guests by Joan Aiken
  3. Lost in Lexicon: An Adventure in Words and Numbers by Pendred Noyce
  4. Night of the Eerie Equations by Robert Black
  5. The Number Devil [Der Zahlenteufel] by Hans Magnus Enzensberger
  6. Calculated Risks by Seanan McGuire
  7. Three Days in Karlikania by Vladimir Levshin
  8. The Magic Two-Horn by Sergey Pavlovich Bobrov
  9. Kayip Piramit - Sayilarin Izinde by Ahmet Baki Yerli
  10. Night of the Frightening Fractions by Robert Black
Ratings for The Cinderella Theorem:
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:
3/5 (1 votes)
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Categories:
GenreFantasy, Children's Literature, Young Adult,
MotifFemale Mathematicians,
Topic
MediumNovels,

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Exciting News: The 1,600th entry was recently added to this database of mathematical fiction! Also, for those of you interested in non-fictional math books let me (shamelessly) plug the recent release of the second edition of my soliton theory textbook.

(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)