Books that support maths and numeracy

Board Books & Picture Books

Counting Books
  • Counting Creatures, by Julia Donaldson & Sharon King-Chai
  • 10 Dogs, by Emily Gravett
  • You Can't Count on Dinosaurs, by Philip Ardagh & Elissa Elwick
  • We all went on Safari: a counting journey through Tanzania, by Laurie Krebs & Julia Cairns
  • How Many Legs? by Yes Gray & Jim Field
  • The "Ten Little..." series by Mike Brownlow & Simon Rickerty
Books About Shapes & Numbers
  • Walter's Wonderful Web, by Tim Hopgood
  • The Perfect Fit, by Naomi Jones & James Jones
  • The Triangle/ Square/ Circle trilogy by Marc Barnett & Jon Klassen
  • A Hundred Billion Stars, by Seth Fishman & Isabel Greenberg
  • How big is a million? by Anna Milbourne & Serena Riglietti
Books About Various Maths Concepts
  • Martha Maps it Out, by Leigh Hodgkinson - maps
  • Isobel Adds it Up, by Kristy Everington & AG Ford (arithmetic)
  • Some of these are Snails, by Carter Higgins (sorting, quantifying)
  • Friends Beyond Measure, by Lalena Fisher (info graphics, data handling)
  • Wild Fibonacci: Nature's Secret Code, by Joy N. Hulme & Carol Schwartz (Fibonacci sequence)
  • Fractions in Disguise, by Edward Einhorn & David Clark (fractions)
  • Inside, Outside, Upside Down, by Stan & Jan Berenstain (position)
  • A very Improbable Story, by Edward Einhorn & Adam Gustavson (probability)
  • What's the Time, Mr Wolf, by Debi Gliori (time)
  • One Very Big Bear, by Alice Briere-Haquet, Olivier Philipponneau & Raphaele Enjoy (size comparison)
  • Equal, Shmequal, by Virginia Kroll & Philomena O'Neill (weighing & measuring)
  • The Sir Cumference series by Cindy Neuschwander & Wayne Geehan (the series covers various maths concepts)
  • Count on Me, by Miguel Tanco (mentions various maths concepts)
  • Molly and the Mathematical Mystery, by Eugenia Cheng & Aleksandra Artymowska (mentions various maths concepts)
  • A Mathematician Like Me, by Dr Shini Somara & Nadja Sarell (mentions various maths concepts)
  • Ada Twist, Scientist, by Andrea Beaty & David Roberts (show relevance of maths in the world of work)
Picture Books About Mathematicians
  • The 'Little People, Big Dreams' series by Isabel Sanchez and various illustrators; includes e.g. Ada Lovelace and Alan Turing
  • Code Breaker, Spy Hunter: How Elizebeth Friedman changed the course of two world wars, by Laurie Wallmark & Brooke Smart
  • Grace Hopper: Queen of Computer Code, by Laurie Wallmark & Katy Wu
  • Srinivasa Ramanujan: Friend of Numbers, by Priya Narayanan
  • Maryam's Magic: The Story of Mathematician Maryam Mirzakahni, by Megan Reid & Aaliya Jaleel
  • Counting on Katherine, by Helaine Becker & Dow Phumiruk
  • Hedy Lamarr's Double Life, by Laurie Wallmark & Katy Wu
  • What's Your Angle, Pythagoras? by Julie Ellis & Phyllis Hornung
  • Emmy Noether: The Most Important Mathematician You've Never Heard Of, by Helaine Becker & Kari Rust
  • The Boy Who Loved Maths: The Improbable Life of Paul Erdös, by Deborah Heiligman & LeUyen Pham

Chapter Books & Novels

  • Count, by Melvin Burgess (age 7+)
  • Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths, by Maisie Chan (age 8+)
  • The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster (age 8+)
  • The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure, by Hans Magnus Enzensberger (author), Rotraut Susanne Berger (illustrator) & Michael Henry Heim (translator) (age 8+)
  • Ruby Redford: Feel the Fear, by Lauren Child (age 9+)
  • A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle (age 9+)
  • The Jamie Drake Equation, by Christopher Edge (age 9+)
  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon (age 10+)
  • I, Ada: Rebel. Genius. Visionary. by Julia Gray (age 12+)
  • White Rabbit, Red Wolf, by Tom Pollock (age 14+)
  • An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green (age 14+)
  • The Quantum Weirdness of the Almost-Kiss, by Amy Noelle Parks (age 14+)
  • My Mechanical Romance, by Alexene Farol Follmuth (age 14+)

Maths Adventure Books

  • The Maths Quest series, by David Glover
  • The Superquesters series, by Lisa Moss, Thomas Bernard & Amy Wilcox

Poetry

  • Nine: A Book of Nonet Poems, by Irene Latham & Amy Huntington (age 5+)
  • Einstein: The Girl Who Hated Maths, by John Agard & Satoshi Kitamura (age 6+)

Graphic Novels

  • The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, by Sydney Padua (age 11+)

Non Fiction Books

  • Just a Second, by Steve Jenkins (age 4+)
  • Look Inside Maths, by Rosie Dickens (age 4+)
  • How many mice make an elephant? and other big questions about size and distance, by Tracey Turner & Aaron Cushley (age 6+)
  • 100 Things to Know About Numbers, Computing & Coding, by various authors & illustrators (age 8+)
  • The 'Murderous Maths' series, by Kjartan Poskitt (age 8+)
  • Mathematics for Beginners, by Sarah Hull, Tom Murray & Paul Boston (age 8+)
  • What's the Points of Maths? by DK books (age 8+)

Maths Activity & Puzzle Books

  • This Book Thinks You're a Maths Genius, by Mike Goldsmith (age 7+)
  • Don't Mess with Maths, by Anna Claybourne (age 8+)
  • Maths Art and Drawing Games for Kids, by Karyn Tripp (age 8+)
  • This is not a Maths Book, by Anna Weltman (age 10+)
  • Puzzles for Spies, from GCHQ (age 10+)

Latest News and Events

News

Finn Finity and the Great Christmas Maths Mystery

Join us in the countdown to the Christmas holidays, to help Finn Finity solve a festive mystery at the museum!

News

Maths Tales Winners

To celebrate Book Week Scotland, we are delighted to announce the finalists and winners of our Maths Tales story-writing competition, run in partnership with Read Write Count with The First Minister.

18th Dec
Event

Numbers in the Fast Lane

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From pit stops to data plots, lets discover the mathematics behind winning a Formula 1 Championship. Join our exciting online livestreamed interactive lesson for school pupils.