Who Made This Book?
For news of free book giveaways, follow us HERE.
Conferences Joe has attended:
NCTM Annual 1990-1997
AASL Charlotte 2009
NCTM Annual 2010
Other books by Joe:
(Free sample: ComBook.pdf)
REVIEWS OF BLOCKHEAD
"D’Agnese’s introduction to medieval Europe’s greatest mathematician offers both a coherent biographical account—spun, with some invented details, from very sketchy historical records—and the clearest explanation to date for younger readers of the numerical sequence that is found throughout nature and still bears his name."
—Booklist
* “The lively text includes touches of humor... O’Brien’s signature illustrations textured with thin lines re-create a medieval setting... [T]he book will be a boon to math teachers, homeschoolers and others piqued by the title.”
—Kirkus Reviews,
starred review
“This lighthearted introducton to Fibonacci’s ideas will inspire young math lovers and perhaps point them toward more scholarly explorations.”
—School Library Journal
“Math lover or not, readers should succumb to the charms of this highly entertaining biography of medieval mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci... D’Agnese’s colloquial tone lures readers into the story and even invites them to ferret out patterns in the illustrations. Atop dappled backgrounds, O’Brien’s delicate swirls and hatch marks echo the mathematical pattern—another graceful connection between math and the real world in which children live.”
—Publishers Weekly
“[An] engaging, kid-friendly look at Fibonacci and his eponymous numerical sequence... The book has some clever tongue-in-check humor, and D’Agnese does a favor by clearly explaining Fibonacci’s breeding rabbits scenario... Throughout the book, O’Brien’s illustrations are textured with swirls and spirals—a whimsical homage to the man who discovered, as he believed, ‘the numbers Mother Nature uses to order the universe.’”
—Horn Book
This is me in Tuscany, Fibonacci’s home turf, seeking truth—and a hot, handmade lasagna.
Joseph D’Agnese, Author
I’m a journalist who has written books for kids and adults. In 2003, I went on a perilous journey to research the life of Leonardo Fibonacci. I sold my house and moved to Italy, where, in order to survive, I was forced to drink foamy cappuccinos, and eat crispy pizza, richly sauced pastas and the occasional gelato in pursuit of the story. At long last I escaped by building a giant raft out of empty cannoli shells, which I used to sail back to the land of E. Pluribus Unum. Fully recovered from my dangerous adventures, I live with my wife in North Carolina.
This is John, hard at work. Okay, hardly working.
John O’Brien, Illustrator
John has been drawing ever since he was a kid! He is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker magazine and has illustrated many popular children’s books, including Did Dinosaurs Eat Pizza?, The Beach Patrol, and This Is Baseball. Though he lives in New Jersey, not far from Philadelphia, he spends three months each year in Miami, Florida, and his summer months at the New Jersey Shore, where he is a lieutenant lifeguard. His love of the sea greatly inspired the beach scenes in Blockhead.
