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Sir Cumference #4
Sir Cumference and the Sword in the Cone (Math Adventures
King Arthur's knights try to find a sword using geometry principles.
32 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews
February 19, 2019
My son and I love this book series that teaches math concepts while enjoying a knight's tale.
April 2, 2022
Wonderful educational kid's book!
April 2, 2011
The character names alone- "sir cumference" "lady di ameter" and their son "radius" are HILARIOUS! This truly is an adventure in math and other elementary school children will love this! It makes math fun to read a story to figure out something like this, with three dimensional shapes and formulas. I also like that the author explains the real life connection to math (the history/explanation of the formula of this story) on the last page. The story is kind of hard to follow along with unless you are really working on the "quest" so that would be my only criticism!
February 13, 2019
More like Sir Barely-Appearing-In-This-Book.
This review was oringinally published at http://www.drttmk.com/books/sir-cumfe....
What even is this? This book is just weird. And apparently it's the fourth one in a series that are all about Sir Cumference. And the title is misleading, because Sir Cumference isn't really all that important to the story, it's more about his son Radius's best friend Vertex.
The family is sitting at a table, eating or something, and Vertex runs in, saying that King Arthur is trying to choose an heir and there are five knights competing for the honor. Vertex is one of them. He's been given a puzzle on parchment that's all about shapes, various solids. The drawings on the paper look kind of like tables, and there's a complicated riddle on it. The King has hidden his sword, and whoever finds it gets to be the next king.
Since the markings on the page look like tables, they go talk to some carpenters. The other four knights are in the courtyard acting like idiots, and they take a shortcut, a tunnel underneath the courtyard (this is really forced foreshadowing-- they could just go around the other knights). The tunnel is a cave with rats and stalactites.
Everyone in this book has really forced math puns for names. The carpenters are brothers, Geo and Sym of Metry. When they ask them about the markings, they immediately recognize them as unfolded solid shapes. What? How is that even related to carpentry? Origami, I could see. Even maybe a seamstress. But carpenters work with three-dimensional objects to make other three-dimensional objects. Their patterns wouldn't look anything like unfolded shapes.
So Radius and Vertex cut up the parchment and fold all the shapes together and try to figure out the riddle. They end up inventing what the book refers to in the afterword as as "Euler's Law" (but is more accurately called "a Euler characteristic"), which is a twos test for geometric solids that shows that when you add the number of faces of a solid to the number of points and then subtract the number of edges, the answer is always two. In most cases. In the book, it's important that it doesn't apply to cylinders or cones.
It seems unrealistic that not only would King Arthur somehow know of Euler's characteristic (Euler, its namesake, was born in the 1700s), but that given a convoluted riddle, two young men in medieval times figure it out on their own in the middle of a carpenter's shop. Radius uses the shapes they folded to make a model of the castle. They start looking in the cylindrical towers with conical tops, but don't find anything. They go up to the roof and look down into the courtyard, where all the stones are round. They somehow theorize that the stones could be the bottoms of cones or cylinders. And it just so happens that the shortcut tunnel is underneath these circles.
Once in the tunnel, they see that all the stalactites are actually man made, and all cones. They dig a few of them up, but then realize there are too many to search them all. But the riddle has something in it about proportions. They wonder if the sword is inside the cone. One of the boys decides that the sword has to be at least as long as his shovel, which is 48 inches long. Which implies that they've never seen it before. There are so many different sizes of swords out there! It could be a short sword. Or a one-handed longsword, which was usually shorter than 48 inches. So Vertex dangles his shovel through a hole, and has Radius go into the tunnel and find the cone with the right length and proportions to match the riddle. They dig it up, open it up, and find a sword in there. So Vertex becomes the prince, and explains to everyone how he did it.
This just feels inane. Who would choose an heir based on their knowledge of mathematics? Why is geometry seen as the most important skill for ruling a kingdom? It's okay, but it just tries too hard. Everything about it is strained. The character names are strained puns. The idea of the king giving five knights a parchment that's got shapes that you can put together and make the castle out of is strained. Them deriving Euler characteristics by themselves is strained. And the whole riddle of 'find my sword using this random knowledge' is strained. There's no realistic usage of mathematics in this. There's no engineering or practical application of anything. It feels like the author had an ending in mind, maybe just the title of the book, and wanted to write something based on Euler characteristics, so she had to make some kind of weird, contrived situation for them to derive Euler characteristics on their own. Everything they do is just super lucky. They happen to know about the tunnel. They happen to talk to the carpenters who happen to know about unfolded shapes. I'm just more baffled by this book than anything else. There were parts of it that were supposed to be funny, but I didn't think they were. I don't know who's going to enjoy this book. People who are really gung-ho about math, I guess.
Message: Knowing mathematics will help you become the king? Enjoying math is mandatory.
This review was oringinally published at http://www.drttmk.com/books/sir-cumfe....
What even is this? This book is just weird. And apparently it's the fourth one in a series that are all about Sir Cumference. And the title is misleading, because Sir Cumference isn't really all that important to the story, it's more about his son Radius's best friend Vertex.
The family is sitting at a table, eating or something, and Vertex runs in, saying that King Arthur is trying to choose an heir and there are five knights competing for the honor. Vertex is one of them. He's been given a puzzle on parchment that's all about shapes, various solids. The drawings on the paper look kind of like tables, and there's a complicated riddle on it. The King has hidden his sword, and whoever finds it gets to be the next king.
Since the markings on the page look like tables, they go talk to some carpenters. The other four knights are in the courtyard acting like idiots, and they take a shortcut, a tunnel underneath the courtyard (this is really forced foreshadowing-- they could just go around the other knights). The tunnel is a cave with rats and stalactites.
Everyone in this book has really forced math puns for names. The carpenters are brothers, Geo and Sym of Metry. When they ask them about the markings, they immediately recognize them as unfolded solid shapes. What? How is that even related to carpentry? Origami, I could see. Even maybe a seamstress. But carpenters work with three-dimensional objects to make other three-dimensional objects. Their patterns wouldn't look anything like unfolded shapes.
So Radius and Vertex cut up the parchment and fold all the shapes together and try to figure out the riddle. They end up inventing what the book refers to in the afterword as as "Euler's Law" (but is more accurately called "a Euler characteristic"), which is a twos test for geometric solids that shows that when you add the number of faces of a solid to the number of points and then subtract the number of edges, the answer is always two. In most cases. In the book, it's important that it doesn't apply to cylinders or cones.
It seems unrealistic that not only would King Arthur somehow know of Euler's characteristic (Euler, its namesake, was born in the 1700s), but that given a convoluted riddle, two young men in medieval times figure it out on their own in the middle of a carpenter's shop. Radius uses the shapes they folded to make a model of the castle. They start looking in the cylindrical towers with conical tops, but don't find anything. They go up to the roof and look down into the courtyard, where all the stones are round. They somehow theorize that the stones could be the bottoms of cones or cylinders. And it just so happens that the shortcut tunnel is underneath these circles.
Once in the tunnel, they see that all the stalactites are actually man made, and all cones. They dig a few of them up, but then realize there are too many to search them all. But the riddle has something in it about proportions. They wonder if the sword is inside the cone. One of the boys decides that the sword has to be at least as long as his shovel, which is 48 inches long. Which implies that they've never seen it before. There are so many different sizes of swords out there! It could be a short sword. Or a one-handed longsword, which was usually shorter than 48 inches. So Vertex dangles his shovel through a hole, and has Radius go into the tunnel and find the cone with the right length and proportions to match the riddle. They dig it up, open it up, and find a sword in there. So Vertex becomes the prince, and explains to everyone how he did it.
This just feels inane. Who would choose an heir based on their knowledge of mathematics? Why is geometry seen as the most important skill for ruling a kingdom? It's okay, but it just tries too hard. Everything about it is strained. The character names are strained puns. The idea of the king giving five knights a parchment that's got shapes that you can put together and make the castle out of is strained. Them deriving Euler characteristics by themselves is strained. And the whole riddle of 'find my sword using this random knowledge' is strained. There's no realistic usage of mathematics in this. There's no engineering or practical application of anything. It feels like the author had an ending in mind, maybe just the title of the book, and wanted to write something based on Euler characteristics, so she had to make some kind of weird, contrived situation for them to derive Euler characteristics on their own. Everything they do is just super lucky. They happen to know about the tunnel. They happen to talk to the carpenters who happen to know about unfolded shapes. I'm just more baffled by this book than anything else. There were parts of it that were supposed to be funny, but I didn't think they were. I don't know who's going to enjoy this book. People who are really gung-ho about math, I guess.
Message: Knowing mathematics will help you become the king? Enjoying math is mandatory.
December 31, 2017
We discovered these books about Sir Cumference on the "Tumblebooks" online audiobook site (http://tumblebooks.com), which is available for free as one of the online resources from our local library. Our girls really enjoyed watching them read aloud.
Although I think the math concepts regarding geometry are a little more difficult to understand for children in grades K-2, I think it was a valuable way to introduce the concepts.
Because the story itself is fun, it makes the educational focus of the book less apparent and more appealing. We've read this book a couple of times.
Although I think the math concepts regarding geometry are a little more difficult to understand for children in grades K-2, I think it was a valuable way to introduce the concepts.
Because the story itself is fun, it makes the educational focus of the book less apparent and more appealing. We've read this book a couple of times.
October 4, 2016
Ellie and mom rates 4 stars, Jacob 3 stars. Read for CC2...krb 10/3/16
December 27, 2018
Sir Cumference is a series of entertaining, clever, and imaginative medieval fantasy tales set in a world full of fun geometry-based names and lands. The reader follows the adventure of each book and discovers new math concepts along with the knights and ladies in the stories - and sometimes dragons. I've always loved a good picture book, and I still do - and these books are a wonderful example of a quality picture book. I've enjoyed Sir Cumference immensely in both childhood and adulthood.
Each book is engaging and well-written, with endearing and clever characters, exciting adventures, and humor throughout. I laugh at the puns and plays on words and at the hilarious situations the characters often go through. I'm amazed at the loveliness of the illustrations, which - like the text - are colorful, funny, exciting, and imaginative, as well as beautifully painted on actual canvas, with gorgeous lighting and color.
And the math concepts presented in the text are humourously, clearly, and simply explained, while still retaining complex and sophisticated information of basic geometry and sometimes other areas of math. And in the context of a fun story, they're easy to remember and recall. A very young child can understand the explanation of the basic concept, the full explanation can aid the learning of an older student, and teens and adults can enjoy the clever books just as much.
I'm good at math, but it's never come easily to me, as it does for my siblings. I struggle to learn and understand math concepts when I can't understand the why and how behind them. Even as a teen and adult, and as a child, reading Sir Cumference helped give me that brilliant light-bulb moment of finally understanding why the equation to find the circumference or area of a circle is the way it is, and works the way it does. The books break these concepts down and show them in concrete, tangible ways, rather than only abstract, nebulous numbers and equations. This way, it's easy to understand how the equation works to produce the number, instead of being unreachable and impossible to wrap one's mind around. Weaving the math into the context of an imaginative story with relatable characters also helps so much, because that's how my mind and imagination engage best with information. If I get the chance to follow in my parents' steps and homeschool my own kids someday, or even if I don't, I will definitely be using these books to teach my future children, if I have any.
I first read the Sir Cumference series as an elementary school-aged child, and I've loved them ever since. The stories have always made me laugh and captured my imagination. It's been a few years since I've read them, and upon rereading the series, I'm pleased to find that the books are are just as wonderful and quality now that I'm an adult and a writer. I was also overjoyed to recently discover the existence of more Sir Cumference sequels that I'd wished for for many years.
I grew up with the first four SirSir Cumference books, and they're special to me, but I enjoyed a couple of the new ones just as much. The first four books in the series are best read in order, but some of the later books were not published chronologically, and they can be read in any order after the first book. For instance, The Isle of Immeter can be read in any order after the first two books, but it should be read before The Viking's Map, since it introduces a new female protagonist. My favorite books in the series are definitely the ones featuring Sir Cumference's son Radius as the main character - the ones I grew up on, and also the slightly newer books I read more recently that follow both Radius and his female cousin Per of Immeter.
The Sir Cumference books are full of sweet characters, exciting tales, adventure, entertaining humor, learning, and more. All this is contained in a short picture book - no small feat! I highly recommend the Sir Cumference series to people of all ages who enjoy a clever and fun story, especially to teachers and homeschoolers for teaching math in an entertaining and engaging manner.
Each book is engaging and well-written, with endearing and clever characters, exciting adventures, and humor throughout. I laugh at the puns and plays on words and at the hilarious situations the characters often go through. I'm amazed at the loveliness of the illustrations, which - like the text - are colorful, funny, exciting, and imaginative, as well as beautifully painted on actual canvas, with gorgeous lighting and color.
And the math concepts presented in the text are humourously, clearly, and simply explained, while still retaining complex and sophisticated information of basic geometry and sometimes other areas of math. And in the context of a fun story, they're easy to remember and recall. A very young child can understand the explanation of the basic concept, the full explanation can aid the learning of an older student, and teens and adults can enjoy the clever books just as much.
I'm good at math, but it's never come easily to me, as it does for my siblings. I struggle to learn and understand math concepts when I can't understand the why and how behind them. Even as a teen and adult, and as a child, reading Sir Cumference helped give me that brilliant light-bulb moment of finally understanding why the equation to find the circumference or area of a circle is the way it is, and works the way it does. The books break these concepts down and show them in concrete, tangible ways, rather than only abstract, nebulous numbers and equations. This way, it's easy to understand how the equation works to produce the number, instead of being unreachable and impossible to wrap one's mind around. Weaving the math into the context of an imaginative story with relatable characters also helps so much, because that's how my mind and imagination engage best with information. If I get the chance to follow in my parents' steps and homeschool my own kids someday, or even if I don't, I will definitely be using these books to teach my future children, if I have any.
I first read the Sir Cumference series as an elementary school-aged child, and I've loved them ever since. The stories have always made me laugh and captured my imagination. It's been a few years since I've read them, and upon rereading the series, I'm pleased to find that the books are are just as wonderful and quality now that I'm an adult and a writer. I was also overjoyed to recently discover the existence of more Sir Cumference sequels that I'd wished for for many years.
I grew up with the first four SirSir Cumference books, and they're special to me, but I enjoyed a couple of the new ones just as much. The first four books in the series are best read in order, but some of the later books were not published chronologically, and they can be read in any order after the first book. For instance, The Isle of Immeter can be read in any order after the first two books, but it should be read before The Viking's Map, since it introduces a new female protagonist. My favorite books in the series are definitely the ones featuring Sir Cumference's son Radius as the main character - the ones I grew up on, and also the slightly newer books I read more recently that follow both Radius and his female cousin Per of Immeter.
The Sir Cumference books are full of sweet characters, exciting tales, adventure, entertaining humor, learning, and more. All this is contained in a short picture book - no small feat! I highly recommend the Sir Cumference series to people of all ages who enjoy a clever and fun story, especially to teachers and homeschoolers for teaching math in an entertaining and engaging manner.
September 28, 2017
Author: Cindy Neuschwander
Illustrator: Wayne Geehan
First published: 2003
Length: 32 pages
More complex maths than earlier books.
Measurements in feet and inches.
Geometry, 3D shapes
~ define edges, points, faces, vertex, polyhedron
~ defines cube, pyramid, rectangular prism, triangular prism, cone, cylinder
Euler's Law: the number of faces + number of vertices - number of edges = 2 for any polyhedron.
Sir Cumference:
Book 1 Sir Cumference and the First Round Table
Book 2 Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi
Book 3 Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland
Book 4 Sir Cumference and the Sword in the Cone
Book 5 Sir Cumference and the Isle of Immeter
Book 6 Sir Cumference and all the King's Tens
Book 7 Sir Cumference and the Viking's Map
Book 8 Sir Cumference and the Off-the-Charts Desserts
Book 9 Sir Cumference and the Roundabout Battle
(ISBN 9781570916014)
-CR-
Illustrator: Wayne Geehan
First published: 2003
Length: 32 pages
More complex maths than earlier books.
Measurements in feet and inches.
Geometry, 3D shapes
~ define edges, points, faces, vertex, polyhedron
~ defines cube, pyramid, rectangular prism, triangular prism, cone, cylinder
Euler's Law: the number of faces + number of vertices - number of edges = 2 for any polyhedron.
Sir Cumference:
Book 1 Sir Cumference and the First Round Table
Book 2 Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi
Book 3 Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland
Book 4 Sir Cumference and the Sword in the Cone
Book 5 Sir Cumference and the Isle of Immeter
Book 6 Sir Cumference and all the King's Tens
Book 7 Sir Cumference and the Viking's Map
Book 8 Sir Cumference and the Off-the-Charts Desserts
Book 9 Sir Cumference and the Roundabout Battle
(ISBN 9781570916014)
-CR-
November 5, 2018
The Sir Cumference books are great! Add a little action to your math by learning about geometric solids.
Ages: 9+
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Ages: 9+
**Like my reviews? I also have hundreds of detailed reports that I offer too. These reports give a complete break-down of everything in the book, so you'll know just how clean it is or isn't. I also have Clean Guides (downloadable PDFs) which enable you to clean up your book before reading it!
Visit my website!
June 7, 2021
This is a series of different books that tie into math concepts. The characters are named after different math concepts which is a great way to introduce new vocabulary. It is a wonderful example of how to integrate ELA and math.
These stories could be a great introduction to a math lesson. They could be used to introduce a concept or review something that has been being studied.
This book addresses vertexes, height, length, width.
Grades: any covering the skills addressed!
These stories could be a great introduction to a math lesson. They could be used to introduce a concept or review something that has been being studied.
This book addresses vertexes, height, length, width.
Grades: any covering the skills addressed!
November 14, 2021
Another cute math book for kids, this time focusing on geometric solids. “Diagrams showing solid shapes flattened out” may be referred to as nets on standardized tests, so this is a vocabulary word that students need to know in relation to this topic. While a cute narrative, much practice is need for students to master this concept.
March 28, 2022
The whole Sir Cumference series is really worth the read, not only in a math class but even in an English class for the great use of words. I used this one before I taught about finding the surface area and volume of cones, cylinders, and spheres and while not quite as good as some of the others, the students still enjoyed it and had fun before we got into the nitty-gritty work.
May 30, 2017
Another marvelous math adventure with castles and swords, oh my! This time, covering cones, diatmeter, Euler's law of the 'two's test', vertices and more. We can't get enough of these fun, memorable and educational adventures.
August 9, 2018
Not as good as the first three in the series, however it is cute. Middle School level 6th grade and 7th grade would be a good target audience in my opinion.
March 20, 2019
Sir Cumference continues to make math fun in this book of solid shapes. I particularly enjoyed all the word play, being more of a "word guy" than a "numbers guy".
Read
June 26, 2019Fictional Story
Math Concept:3D objects
Math Concept:3D objects
November 14, 2019
Excellent for the understanding of mathematics !
March 5, 2020
Loved this book for both my class and my children, it such a great book about teaching basic math skills.
December 8, 2020
Great Mentor Text for identifying geometric 2D and 3D shapes
May 25, 2021
I love this little math adventure, and was glad to find this book yesterday after hearing about the book a while ago.
July 21, 2021
EULER'S LAW
Flat Face + point - edge = 2 in any polyhedron.
An curious and intelligent story to tell about Euler's law through cube, rectangular prism, triangular prism, pyramid, cylinder and cone.
Flat Face + point - edge = 2 in any polyhedron.
An curious and intelligent story to tell about Euler's law through cube, rectangular prism, triangular prism, pyramid, cylinder and cone.
September 16, 2021
Need to read this again
October 15, 2021
again, good for children and wonderfully illustrated.
Again, i don't know why i'm being read this in math class, seeing as we're all teens, but ah well.
Again, i don't know why i'm being read this in math class, seeing as we're all teens, but ah well.
January 3, 2022
Entertaining
January 18, 2023
Clever way to make math more memorable!
March 13, 2017
Not much math in this one. It's a bit bland, funny mostly because of math puns rather than anything 'right' with the plot, setting or characters.
August 10, 2015
This was a great Goodwill find! Will share with my math specialist, but will also share with my students! It is pretty wordy, and a long story for a math lesson my (elementary) students probably won't need to apply, but definitely could figure out! Would be a fun activity building up to certain points of the story, then let them play around a bit. (Can give them shapes and let them count faces, edges, etc. and do the math. Let them discover Euler's Law! Can also let them play around with heights and diameters of cones to figure out which is 3 times taller than the base is wide...) This will be fun!
January 31, 2013
Best for kids ages 6 and up.
Early Literacy Skills: Vocabulary, Narrative Skills
From cover:
Sir Cumference is back and he's not alone, helping Sir Vertex seek the sword in the cone.
King Artur has hidden his sword, Edgecalibur. The knight who finds it will be the next king.
Can Sir Cumference and Lady Di point Vertex in the right direction? Will Vertex's sharp thinking give him the edge?
Another math adventure with Sir Cumference and his family with this nicely illustrated story about shapes.
Early Literacy Skills: Vocabulary, Narrative Skills
From cover:
Sir Cumference is back and he's not alone, helping Sir Vertex seek the sword in the cone.
King Artur has hidden his sword, Edgecalibur. The knight who finds it will be the next king.
Can Sir Cumference and Lady Di point Vertex in the right direction? Will Vertex's sharp thinking give him the edge?
Another math adventure with Sir Cumference and his family with this nicely illustrated story about shapes.
September 9, 2014
Vertex and Radius use the clues to find a hidden sword. There is word play and adventure, as well as geometry on the way.
Readers are introduced to Euler's Law, or the two's test for geometrical solids. Anytime the number of faces on a geometric sold is added to the number of its points (vertices) and then subtracted from the number of edges, the answer will always be two. (note that this works for any polyhedron, straight-sided, solid shape).
I think this book would be most meaningful for readers if they take the time to sit out the flat shapes and fold them into 3-D figures.
Readers are introduced to Euler's Law, or the two's test for geometrical solids. Anytime the number of faces on a geometric sold is added to the number of its points (vertices) and then subtracted from the number of edges, the answer will always be two. (note that this works for any polyhedron, straight-sided, solid shape).
I think this book would be most meaningful for readers if they take the time to sit out the flat shapes and fold them into 3-D figures.
April 4, 2011
Once again, this series is amazing to introduce mathematical terms to elementary students. As I read this book it helped to jog my memory about several math concepts I'd honestly forgot! This could be a great activating strategy in discussing shapes (cones in this case) and understanding the characteristics of 3-D shapes. Students could build their own cities using 3-D shapes the class is learning about (i.e. cubes, cones, spheres, etc). Fun book!!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews