The Boy Who Dreamed of Infinity

By Amy Alznauer, Daniel Miyares (Illustrator)

A boy's passion for numbers leads him to redefine mathematics, seeking someone who understands his genius.

5.0/7 Bookroo expert·3.7/5 Goodreads · 242 ratings

48 pages· 1,979 words· Est. 16 min read-aloud

$17.99Save 6%

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Bookroo's summary

In 1887 India, young Ramanujan sees numbers everywhere, from temple towers to sandy floors. Struggling in school, he dreams of infinity and reinvents mathematics. But can he find someone who truly understands his groundbreaking ideas? This inspiring tale explores the journey of a boy whose love for numbers changes the world.

From the publisher

A young mathematical genius from India searches for the secrets hidden inside numbers – and for someone who understands him – in this gorgeous picture-book biography.

A mango . . . is just one thing. But if I chop it in two, then chop the half in two, and keep on chopping, I get more and more bits, on and on, endlessly, to an infinity I could never ever reach.

In 1887 in India, a boy named Ramanujan is born with a passion for numbers. He sees numbers in the squares of light pricking his thatched roof and in the beasts dancing on the temple tower. He writes mathematics with his finger in the sand, across the pages of his notebooks, and with chalk on the temple floor. “What is small?” he wonders. “What is big?” Head in the clouds, Ramanujan struggles in school – but his mother knows that her son and his ideas have a purpose. As he grows up, Ramanujan reinvents much of modern mathematics, but where in the world could he find someone to understand what he has conceived?

Author Amy Alznauer gently introduces young readers to math concepts while Daniel Miyares’s illustrations bring the wonder of Ramanujan’s world to life in the inspiring real-life story of a boy who changed mathematics and science forever. Back matter includes a bibliography and an author’s note recounting more of Ramanujan’s life and accomplishments, as well as the author’s father’s remarkable discovery of Ramanujan’s Lost Notebook.

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