Math Girls by Hiroshi Yuki, Translated by Tony Gonzalez

 

Math Girls by Hiroshi Yuki is a strange combination of teen romance and math textbook.  Our unnamed narrator is a shy young boy who spends most of his free time doing math problems in the library. He meets Miruka as she starts spitting sequences at him and they have a rousing conversation of noticing patterns.  Tetra comes across his radar as she comes up to him to beg help with understanding mathematics. In between this lackluster love triangle, our narrator and his two would be admirers solve math problems ranging from simple algebra problems to concepts that went way over my head.

It's a weird, weird book. The romance is barely passable as such. The math is so varying in difficulty that it's hard to know exactly who the audience is for it. I think it could be useful in teaching about math - there are excellent scenes showing collaboration among the three main characters in solving problems - but the question of what level of teaching someone would be doing is still always there.  It's too high level for high school, but maybe college students who enjoy a stretch?  I do like the message that math is not about just solving equations and memorizing formulas, but that math is about deriving patterns and hidden messages in a playful way.  It's just...it's a strange format, you.

It gets glowing reviews on Goodreads, so I do think there's an audience who is interested in this type of book and would love it. If you're a STEM-orientated person, this might be a great fit for you. Even if some of the mathematical concepts go over your head, the sheer enthusiasm of the three leads will definitely resonate with you. If you're a person who just enjoys reading about other people's enjoyment about a topic, deep rabbit holes on obscure topics, and panegyric's on Leonhard Euler, this might also be for you.

I did enjoy it. I don't think I'll be hunting down copies of the rest of the books in this series, including Math Girls Talk about Trigonometry and Math Girls 2: Fermat's Last Theorem, but I love that these books exist.  

Lines of note:

"Through equations, I can share the experience of mathematicians from ages past." (page 1)

"Language is extremely important in mathematics. Math uses language in a very precise way to make sure there's no confusion." (page 18)

"'...If you shout a 0, it becomes a 1.  See?'" I wrote in the notebook:

                            0!

(page 189)

The above is an absolutely nerdy math joke and if you don't get it, don't worry about it. I chuckled.