PYTHAGORAS AND THE RATIOS

In ancient Greece, a young musician makes exciting discoveries. The boy Pythagoras, brimming with curiosity, steps up to help when his friend Octavius might be unable to compete in an upcoming musical contest. The problem is an awful noise coming from Octavius’s new pipes. With a stylus, clay tablet, measuring cord and his sharp wits, mathematician-to-be Pythagoras figures out the relationship between pipe length and resultant sound and helps fashion a perfectly pitched set of pipes for Octavius. The lyres of his friends Amara and Reyna provide a more difficult challenge, one that Pythagoras solves (in a race against the clock) with scales and tiny rocks. He does it so successfully that he and his friends form Pythagoras and the Ratios...the first rock group! The book’s educational aspects are fascinating—both the text and the acrylic-and–colored-pencil illustrations bring these to life—but it’s flat-footed on the story’s narrative aspects, both visually and textually. Helpful addenda provide interesting information on Pythagoras and the application of his ratios to music. (Picture book. 7-10)