A Growing List of Favorite Math Books for Kids of All Ages (and Adults!)

A month or so ago, I asked in our Facebook group what the best way to build a list of favorite math books would be, and of course the most popular answer was a Google Form! I wanted to make a go-to list for any teacher or parent to find a new math-themed book to read. The math books in the list now range from books for preschoolers to adults. 

And I hope you will add to the list! Here is the list of favorite math books. At the top is a link to the form where you can add your own favorite math books.

I went for a really long (embarrassingly long) time not reading. I'd find every excuse not to pick up a book, and before I knew it, it had been years. My first book back was Mathematical Mindsets from Jo Boaler, which of course changed my life. It took me a really long time to read because it's so densely packed with so much good stuff. And I read at night, which makes it harder to read for a long time!

I hope you check out the math books list. Below are some of my personal favorite math-themes books.

Zero is amazing. If you like ancient history and math history, this book is for you. I can't even wrap my head around how long it must have taken author Charles Seife to compile all of the information in this book. It feels like it must have taken decades. So awesome. I'll definitely read this one again.

A book I recently found at our public library is this one, Junk Drawer Geometry. Inside are tons of paper-folding, paper-cutting and other hands-on activities to show geometry concepts. 

I haven't even scratched the surface of what is inside. My favorite is the borderline parlour tick of turning 2 paper circles into a square by taping them and cutting. When I showed this to my students, they called it magic. Always a fun day when kids call math magic!

My daughter loves this book Amazing Visual Math. Inside are so many opportunities to explore math in 3 dimensions.

Here, part of the book folds up, making a cube. Kids can think about how many single-units would make this cube's volume. 

The Math Book from Clifford A. Pickover is another one that is so packed full of facts I can't imagine it having taken less than a century to compile it all.

It's a cool reference book. Every other page is another tidbit of math with a picture to go with it. Zeno's Paradox is also mentioned in Zero and took a long time for mathematicians to figure out.

A Remainder of One rhymes as it teaches kids about division and arrays. I get weirdly sentimental reading this book for some reason.

Maybe it's because the Elinor J Pinzes was able to show how 25 can be arranged in a bunch of different ways. I think it's cool how most ways leave a remainder of one. I love this book so much that I made a set of free Remainder of One posters.

Alice Aspinall nailed growth mindset in her book Everyone Can Learn Math. We love this book in the McKay house. 

I think as my daughter starts to hit harder math as she makes her way through elementary school this book will be one that we will re-read (and re-read) and reference during homework sessions.

What is your favorite math book? I hope you will add it to the favorite math book list! And I hope this growing list is helpful to you for finding a new math-themed book for you, your family or your students.