A gem that can be enjoyed by everyone from young children to sophisticated mathematicians

Simple classic | The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics | N. Juster

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	• The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics N. Juster Chronicle Books, 2000 - 80 pages average customer review:based on 31 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Simply Art

I was introduced to this book in a college course for art illustration, I have since bought it at least seven times, gave it away, then missed it. I now have a copy to KEEP!

A gem that can be enjoyed by everyone from young children to sophisticated mathematicians

There really isn't much math in this book, but then the book is for young children, so that is not a valid criticism. It is a book about a male straight line that is in love with a female point that prefers a chaotic meandering line. He is distraught at his unrequited love and his straight line friends try to cheer him up. They tell him things like: "She lacks depth", "They all look alike anyway." This does not help, his response is, "She is perfect any way I look at her."
Many illustrations are included to further the "point." My favorite is the illustration that has the point in question on a pedestal with the inscription, "Ultimum punctum", Latin for "Ultimate point." After an enormous effort, the straight line manages to bend himself into angles and suddenly he is capable of making precise geometric shapes. This thoroughly impresses the point and she joins forces with him to make an exclamation point. The story closes with the moral, "To the vector belong the spoils."
Given the complexity of the mathematical satire, this is a book that can be enjoyed by everyone from children to sophisticated mathematicians. Amazon.com lists it as a book for the ages 4-8, but that is much too simple way to look at this gem.

Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission

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Simple classic

The Dot & the Line is a simple classic and classy little book. My highschool geometry teacher read it to the class at the end of the school year and I remember it from then. A sought after dot is chased by two suitors, the line and the squiggle. Success requires learning new tricks. This tongue-in-cheek story is beautifully illustrated and cleverly written with a zinger moral of the story at the end. I highly recommend this to virtually anyone, especially to engineers and mathematicians with a sense of humor (or their spouses).

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40 Years Later & it just as good.

My freshman calculus teacher read this to her class ~40 years ago, and I LOVED it. It helped me understand that math isn't the boring exercise that so many think it is. Recently I had the pleasure of re-reading this delightful story and found it every bit as wonderful as I had 40 years ago. I have been reading it to young grandchildren lest they become squiggly lines instead of seeing the benefits of being straight ones. This book is a timeless classic that should be read widely by all ages.

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The Dot and the Line

I don't know why, but I was under the impression that this was a children's book. It's not. It's a math lover's book. The book itself was ridiculously hard for me to find, so I was glad when I finally got my hands on it, but again, huge letdown that this isn't a quirky little kid's book about dots and lines and basic geometry. The font is difficult to read at times, although the design quality, simplistic as it is, is superb. The story itself is pretty simplistic, but so very complicated in its simplicity. The puns, the symbolism, make for a good read.

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The endearing fable about a straight line who falls in love with a dot and sets out to win her heart away from a squiggle. A borderline classic; 70,000 sold to date!

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

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