The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Aviation Girls: A Brief History of Flight, Nine Challenging YA Stories by Tom Durwood; Rupa and Her Fellow Geniuses Take to The Friendly Skies in Third Installment

 

The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Aviation Girls: A Brief History of Flight, Nine Challenging YA Stories by Tom Durwood; Rupa and Her Fellow Geniuses Take to The Friendly Skies in Third Installment

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: If you are interested, please reviews of the previous volumes, The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Geometry Girls and The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Math Girls.

Rupashana Lal Pyradhakrishnan AKA Ruby Pi is back and she brought more geniuses with her. In this third installment in Tom Durwood’s The Adventures of Ruby Pi series, the girl geniuses who conquered the Geometry and Mathematical world now take to the skies. In The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Aviation Girls, Readers are given nine stories in which characters explore flight in its many forms: through birds, kites, balloons, airplanes, rockets, and spaceships.

Durwood appeals to his strengths by giving good characterization, plot, and setting to help his young Readers understand the mathematical, scientific, and historical themes and concepts introduced in each story. He fits the role of an educator who makes learning fun. 

The best stories in this volume are: 

“The First Manned Flight”- In 1820, Germany, Anke had to use her recent invention of a battle kite to rescue her older sister, Romy, when she was kidnapped by a lecherous nobleman.

In his attempts to drill an educational lesson into his young Reader’s heads, Durwood never loses sight of telling a good story and here he gives an interesting protagonist. Anke is a multifaceted character. She is argumentative with her siblings during their daily routine but fiercely protective of them when it matters the most. She is lazy and slovenly but also industrious during her scientific pursuits. She is arrogant, dedicated, obsessive, curious, intuitive and brilliant, all of the things that make a good scientist and inventor and fortunately for Romy, a good rescuer.  

We get a glimpse of the scientific process as Anke uses trial and error to build her flying machine, calculate its trajectory, and use it to attack the fortress and rescue her sister. 

“Gia Finds a Love”-In WWII, Gia Tomasso a young Italian-American mathematician is called into service to partake in a secret mission to study the trajectory of Japanese fighter planes before they attack Aleutian villages in the Arctic. 

Gia is a sharp, memorable protagonist with immense brain power which she uses in her personal and professional life. She takes charge of the family finances to save them from bankruptcy and her only request before she takes part in this assignment is that her family’s debts are cleared so they now own their apartment building and business. 

The way that Gia takes part in the war effort is very strategic and analytical. She studies the photographs of Edweard Muybridge and is inspired to have step by step photographs taken of the Japanese aircraft. She and Tayra, an Aleutian hunter, fly to various locations to leave tree-mounted motion detector cameras. Then she studies the photographs to find the plane’s weaknesses. It’s a smart plan that ultimately pays off when her information is right on the money.

Besides Gia, the story is rich with other characters. There’s Tayra, who not only guides Gia but uses his hunting skills to save her life and becomes a love interest. Her handler, Sheila and colleague, Tessa show courage and sacrifice in times of great conflict. Above all there’s Daichi Yamada, a Japanese pilot who is on the offensive. He is someone who doesn’t have any extreme devotion to the Emperor (in fact he disagrees with him most of the time) and bears no animosity to the other countries, but he knows that he must serve his country. Daichi is also devoted to his girlfriend and keeps her picture in his cockpit for luck. It’s refreshing to take time in a WWII story to develop both sides of the conflict and see human beings instead of propagandistic stereotypes.

“A Corpse in the Moon Colony Saraswati”- One of the more intriguing aspects of this book is that Durwood is moving out of his comfort zone and exploring other subgenres in his work. The first story, “Flight of Birds” is a mythological tale with no humans that is told from the point of view of birds. The story, “A Corpse in Moon Colony Saraswati” leaves the Historical Fiction past and journeys into the future. It is a Science Fiction short story set in the year 2076 on a lunar colony.

Teen botanists, Mahi Jaat and Saanvi Yadav and their journalist friend, Dhruv  Masal discover a dead body while on routine assignment studying the produce, grain, and orchards in the Botanical Gardens. They receive permission to investigate the body, which is identified as a Russian security officer. The investigation leads them to discover some secrets and conspiracies involving those around them.

There are some memorable descriptions of the Moon colony itself and the details that such a place would have including the topography, industry, technology, population, sociopolitics, education and other facets. Durwood put as much thought into a fictional location as he did to his real ones. He also explores Mahi and Saanvi’s interests in magnetic flight, showing that even in outer space, there are always new theories to test, new inventions to try, and  new discoveries to make. 

Mostly, this is a top notch murder mystery where Mahi and Saanvi use their scientific minds and Dhruv’s communication skills to find the various clues and answers to their investigation. They are intelligent and clear headed enough to find a solution and dedicated to the pursuit of justice to reveal the truth.  

“Ruby and the London, Paris Air Race”- Of course, where would this series be without its eponymous protagonist, engineer, botanist, inventor, mathematician, scientist, genius, amateur detective, know-it-all, Rupa Lal Pyradhakrishnan? This time she is recruited by Lloyd’s of London to do risk assessment at the famed London, Paris Air Race. 

Her detailed notes on aircraft such as the Voisin, the Zeppelin, and the Wright Military are fascinating. She observes each airplane and provides a lot of fascinating information about the aircraft that was available in the 1900’s. Also to think that this was a few short years after the Wright Brothers took their first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina shows how quickly the idea of airplanes took and how engineers and pilots adapted and changed their original concept to fit their needs. 

Rupa also receives another assignment at the Race, one of espionage and suspense. While the race shows a positive side of progress this investigation gives us a darker more negative side. It reminds us that this time was also one of feuding countries whose simmering hatred for one another would soon explode into two World Wars. It also reminds us that those fascinating beautiful airplanes that were once technological marvels would later be used as weapons that would increase with every subsequent war. 

“The Price of Flight”- Rupa isn’t the only character to return in this volume. Another returnee is Isoke, the 18th century Beninese architect from the story, “Isoke and the Architect.” The previous story showed her ascendancy as she was recruited by Queen Nala to create and oversee the construction of water pumps. It ended with triumph for Isoke and a fine patronage from and friendship with the Queen. 

Now, Isoke’s status is diminished. She has been cast out from her village and forced to live in exile. She cares for an injured falcon and faces her own personal insecurities and inner strength. 

Isoke’s relationship with the falcon is beautiful as she tenderly nurses it and teaches it to fly. She also gains the courage and insight that she needs to return one day  to the village and fight for her position. 

Each story comes with notes and commentary from Durwood and other academics that lend their knowledge and expertise to the subjects. We learn more about the concepts that are written and where they fit in with a technology that will always be able to take off. 

Weekly Reader: Cryptic Spaces Book One: Foresight by Deen Ferrell; Captivating Science Fiction and Fantasy Combines Mathematics, Magic, and Time Travel to Make An Incredible Journey

 Weekly Reader: Cryptic Spaces Book One: Foresight by Deen Ferrell; Captivating Science Fiction and Fantasy Combines Mathematics, Magic, and Time Travel to Make An Incredible Journey 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: One could describe Deen Ferrell’s Foresight, the first book in the  Cryptic Spaces series, as the Thinking Person’s Fantasy Adventure. It is the kind of book that shows characters with supernatural gifts, but instead of citing them as magic or psychic abilities, they are more symptoms of an intellectual deep thinking mind. It is a captivating journey of the mind and spirit.

Willoughby Von Brahmer is an eccentric teen prodigy with some very unique gifts. He can see numbers and patterns all around him and because of that, he can recognize mathematical equations and solutions. He is obsessed with looking at what he calls “the spaces between,” those areas of emptiness between solid objects like alleys between buildings, the cracks on a cement or painted surface, or the space between leaves on a tree branch. These spaces seem to tell him something and make him feel like he is being observed. He is also responsible for solving the Riemann Hypothesis, a mathematical equation once thought unsolvable. 

Unfortunately, Willoughby is something of a social misfit. He has very few friends, does not always get along with his seemingly normal family, has questions about his missing father, and gets tongue tied around girls. Even a picture of renowned violinist Sydney Senoya makes him flush with embarrassment and nervousness. In fact, his only friend is Antonio, a talkative friendly barber who dispenses some brotherly advice to the kid genius. Willoughby is definitely someone who lives inside his own head more than anywhere else.

Willoughby soon comes to learn that inside his own head is not the safest place to be either because he is starting to see people appearing and disappearing through those in between spaces. Some are even watching him and want to harm him. He also sees certain numbers shine more than others like they are pointing him towards a code or a specific pattern.

He follows the number patterns and between spaces to the headquarters of Cryptic Spaces, a secret society that travels through time, and studies and solves mysteries and puzzles that have eluded experts for centuries. Willoughby is invited to join this group by its enigmatic leader, H.S.  The offer is tempting and before he knows it, Willoughby finds himself onboard a windjammer, The Absconditus, heading for the high seas with the other Cryptics. They include Antonio who is not just a barber but an architectural genius, Sydney, who has a hypnotic mesmerizing way of playing her violin and a gift for languages, Dr. James Arthur “Dr. J” Washington, the kindly physically fit medical doctor, Dr. Hugh O’Grady, a nervous expert on string theory, and T.K., the cabin girl assigned to watch this band of genius misfits. The Cryptics' latest assignment is to travel back to the 16th century and encounter the famed seer, Nostradamus but unfortunately they are not alone. They are being followed by another more sinister group that has been very interested in their doings since Willoughby joined them and are hot on the trail of the young math genius.

Cryptic Spaces is a book that activates the mind and imagination by fusing science and magic, reason and romance to make a perfect blend of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Adventure. While mathematical concepts are explained in detail, they are done in a way that is not only understandable but poetic. There is something genuinely beautiful about the concept of someone seeing mathematical patterns that form in the air and realize how connected everything is by a specific design and structure. It's a visually appealing thought that makes Cryptic Spaces not only a good book to read but a beautiful work to imagine. When the characters discuss for example the Golden Mean, they reveal that they are able to capture the golden strings that it emits and travel along the streams through time.

Even if you aren't a Math person, you will still find this book to be a work of art and imagination.

There are plenty of awe inspiring moments spread throughout the book. How does H.S. convince Willoughby that he is on the level and the Cryptics really do time travel? Why show him a Jurassic era sea complete with plesiosaur of course. There are some interesting possibilities about the alleged prophecies of Nostradamus and how exactly he knew so much about the future, possibilities that had better be followed up on.

The way that characters travel through those in between spaces is an interesting concept. It's like that person that you barely see out of the corner of your eye and they quickly disappear. These abilities are impressive but could make one doubt their sanity. Of course it doesn't help that you're not paranoid. Those characters that pop in and out of your line of sight really are trying to recruit or kill you!

Foresight is the typical first book in the series where the core characters meet, get to know each other, show their special gifts, and ongoing conflicts are introduced that trail throughout the series. Romances bloom and friendships are made. The Cryptics are a fascinating bunch with diverse talents and peculiarities. Sometimes they make others suspicious. H.S.’s motives are particularly questionable and characters wonder more than once what his real goals and intentions are. There is also an attack and betrayal comes from a familiar face. Most of this is routine for a first book. But with a concept like this and a fascinating ensemble like the Cryptics, the formula works well.

Cryptic Spaces combines the reason of mathematics, the imagination of fantasy, the wonder of science fiction, and the thrill of adventure to make one of the best books of 2023.

New Book Alert: The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Math Girls (The Adventures of Ruby Pi Book 2): Teen Heroines Use Geometry, Algebra, and Other Mathematics to Solve Colossal Problems; Ruby and Her Genius Colleagues Return in Five More Intelligent, Exciting, Educational, and Clever Stories

 

New Book Alert: The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Math Girls (The Adventures of Ruby Pi Book 2): Teen Heroines Use Geometry, Algebra, and Other Mathematics to Solve Colossal Problems; Ruby and Her Genius Colleagues Return in Five More Intelligent, Exciting, Educational, and Clever Stories

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: I will admit that I am a Literary Genius but a Math Dunce.

I excelled in English Writing and Literature classes and even tutored other students. I earned my BA in English from University of Missouri-St. Louis and Masters in Library Science from Indiana University-Indianapolis. I have turned my talents in Writing and Literature into a loved (and hopefully one day lucrative) career as a Book Reviewer and Editor.

However, Math was a different story. Math and Science were my worst subjects in school. I liked logic puzzles and code breaking because they involved analysis and deductive reasoning but those were the only Math problems that I actually liked.

 I barely passed my undergraduate degree by taking Computer courses for Science credit and Contemporary Math (Math for everyday use like shopping and business AKA "Math for Dummies/English Majors") for Math. If it wasn't for those courses, I would either still be trying to get my BA or have long given up in frustration.

The reason that I am mentioning my terrible history with Math is to emphasize on how well Tom Durwood's The Adventures of Ruby Pi Series works. It works the same way many good educational PBS series do. It explains a subject that many Readers may have (and still might) have a hard time understanding and makes it clear and exciting to follow.

The second book, The Adventures of Ruby Pi and The Math Girls is more of the same. Excellent stories featuring intelligent young women using their mathematical skills in diverse ways to help the society around them.

Just like in the Geometry Girls, the book is separated into five stories. They are:

"Ruby Pi and The Case of the Shy Mathematician"

The eponymous protagonist/super genius is back. This time Rupa is called by Inspector Daniel Summerscale to solve the murder of mathematician, Anaan Warinda.

This case is a personal one for Rupa. Warinda was a mentor to the young woman and even encountered her as a child, giving her the nickname of Ruby Pi.

As with her previous experience, Rupa uses a mathematical procedure to solve Warinda's murder. This time she uses "Bayes's Rule" which states, "The probability of arriving at a true theorem improves upon the processing of new data." Some Mathematical theories are created as means to solve problems, not just with numbers.

Rupa is able to gather data to find a solution, especially in solving Warinda's complex coded notebooks. She finds herself involved in a much larger case involving the tense relationship between the English and Indian governments. She also earns respect and admiration from Inspector Summerscale and the Mathematical Society. It is definitely a period of ascension towards Rupa's character and status.

"Blue Moon Over Mogollons"

While Bayes's Rule may be new to some Readers, many are probably familiar with the concept of card counting and how highly intelligent gamblers use it to cheat the system and sometimes try to beat the house.

In Wild West, Silver City, Casey uses her talent for card counting to help her mother succeed in card games (even if Ma doesn't always listen). However, their latest caper involves some dangerous desperados and new weaponry.

In this story, we see how Casey is able to use her talents to help her family. However, we also see how this makes her an outsider towards them. Because of her advanced intelligence, Casey is able to see and long for a life outside of the saloons, gambling houses, and shoot outs. Casey's mother however lives only for her current pleasures like gambling and drinking. While Math is important to the story,"Blue Moon Over Mogollons" is mostly a family story about what happens when families have different incompatible views about what they want out of life.

"Pen's Black Swan"

As we learned from the previous volume, societies need economic and statistical forecasters to predict the financial turns that could occur. Just like with the weather, it would be good to listen and prepare ourselves.

This story is set in 1992 when Penelope West predicts that the stock market will undergo a black swan, an unpredictable and unforeseen event typically with extreme consequences. This is also the time when markets coalesced to force the British government to exit the European Exchange Rate Mechanism by removing its currency from the government.

Of the five stories, this is probably the least interesting. It covers similar ground to "Yan Li and the Numerators" and "Shawnee and The Visitor" in which a fictional person presents a real prediction but is shot down by reality. However, it does give some credence by people accepting Pen's views in the end. This and similar stories prove that we should never be too proud or arrogant to not listen to warnings. Sometimes, it's best to over prepare and be calm when something doesn't happen than to not prepare and be in the middle of the explosion wondering what we could have done differently.

"Jayani's Big Gamble"

Similar to "Blue Moon Over Mogollons" this is a family story disguised as a math lesson. Third Aunt who raised and trained her apprentice chef, Jayani, is ill. Jayani must raise money for her medical care but how? She uses her baking skills and knowledge of volume to make pottery and rent out kilns.

Jayani is a clever woman who is able to take charge during troubled times. She helps her aunt showing a strong familial love. She also is able to become a success achieving fame and wealth for her talents. She and her aunt are the opposite of Casey and her mother in that they show deep loyalty and encouragement.

"Sasha With the Red Hair"

We come to one of my favorite Mathematical puzzles, code breaking in probably my favorite story in this volume. It is similar in content to the previous volume's "Simone and the Mean Girls" involving an intelligent woman trying to solve a code while dealing with a vain and arrogant rival. Only this time, the rival is her sister.

 Uly won the  Vavilov for Mathematical achievement and she and her family are going to Moscow for the honor. Unfortunately, her sister Sasha ("with the red hair" the narrative says), gets the attention with her beauty and claiming credit for the achievement. 

While in Moscow, Uly stumbles upon a secret Mayan codex and Sasha gets herself in trouble with the NKVD.

This story is a reminder of the old fairy tales in which a good hard working sibling triumphs over the bad tempered lazy sibling. Uly is a reminder of many who have been overlooked by peers, leaders, friends, and even family members because of better looking, louder, and more talented siblings. It can be hard to deal with when one's talents are so often overlooked. However, in this instance both sisters get exactly what they deserve in a clever roundabout way which finally rewards Uly's intelligence. While Sasha brings about her own comeuppance.

New Book Alert: Return of the Hypotenuse: Poetry in Math and Science by Sunil Mishra; Poems Explain Mathematical and Scientific Concepts in a Fun and Easy Way

New Book Alert: Return of the Hypotenuse: Poetry in Math and Science by Sunil Mishra; Poems Explain Mathematical and Scientific Concepts In A Fun Easy Way

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

PopSugar Reading Challenge: Book on a Subject That You Don't Know Anything About



When we are in school, sometimes we are taught memory devices to remember certain concepts. We all know ROY G BIV to learn the colors of the rainbow or the nursery rhyme, "Thirty days hath September" to remember the months of the year. Of course all children of the '90's and beyond still recall the ditties from Animaniacs: Yakko Warner's "United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru…." And Wakko Warner's "Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Indianapolis, Indiana, and Columbus is the capital of Ohio.." The devices take what could be difficult lists of learning by rote into easy to remember concepts.



Author and financial services representative, Sunil Mishra uses these devices to create poems that discuss math and science. For some people, Math and Science can be some of the most difficult subjects. Math can be hard for people who have trouble processing numbers and logical reasoning. Science can be tough for people to remember all of those laws, theories, and methods.
Mishra takes these difficult subjects and gives them form, rhythm, and rhyme. By using poetry, he engages the Reader by making these subjects easy to remember.


You have to give it to a guy who writes a poem about Pi. Humor and learning can be found with lines like "3.14 is called Pi/The Greek letter for P/P the circle for perimeter/The length of the periphery."


The book is written with a late elementary/middle school audience in mind. However, adults who struggled with Math and Science classes in school will enjoy getting reacquainted with the subjects that they may have struggled with in youth. In one poem,Mishra devotes different stanzas to the angles. There is a rhythm to such lines as "a, and b a and b making the right angle/The Hypotenuse being brought up by Mr. C" The rhythm helps make the poem and the Pythagorean Theorem easy to remember. (It also answers the question that you will need this for building and designing.)


The poems include prose explanations describing the subjects. A poem on Einstein's Theory of Relativity, for example, includes a prose section that breaks down the theory into aspects and sub theories. The prose section augments the poetry offering alternate ways to learn about these subjects.


The poems feature a variety of different topics under the general subjects of Math and Science. Some of the more interesting poems discuss various scientists and inventors and how they changed things with their discoveries. One poem, "History of Inventions-A.D. (Anno Domini Intel 8048)" talks about the early inventors and programmers like Charles Babbage and applications like Netscape Navigator and search engines like Alta Vista helped shape computers and the Internet into the juggernaut that we know now.


Mishra even has time to throw in a theological vs. scientific debate. In his poem, "There Must Be Some God," discussed the possibility of intelligent design. The poem offers the possibility that there may be something that provides answers to our unresolved questions.


Sunil Mishra's Return of the Hypotenuse takes complex difficult concepts and makes them simple, understandable, and even fun.