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★ "An astonishing, delightful, and illuminating celebration of mathe-magics." – Kirkus (STARRED review)
★ "This fun, informative, and highly visual title is a unique addition that belongs on the “M” shelf in all STEM collections." – Booklist (STARRED review)
A Junior Library Guild Selection!
A mathe-magician explores what makes Pi so intriguing, so unknowable and so very important to our lives.
For millennia, humans have been obsessed with the number Pi. We needed it for architecture, geometry and astronomy, and so it was sought by the ancient Egyptians, the Mayans and the ancient Chinese. But no one has ever found it—and no one ever will because Pi is infinite and irrational. Its decimals contain the birthdates of all the children who have ever lived, every piece of music, the complete works of Shakespeare. Pi never ends and can’t be learned, but humans keep on trying. Today, we know trillions of decimals of Pi, even if the first fifteen are more than enough to send a rocket to Mars!
Telling the story of Archimedes the Greek to Srinivasa Ramanujan the Indian (who saw in his dreams a formula for calculating Pi still used by computers today), via Arabs and mathematics enthusiasts from all over the world and all eras, The Big Book of Pi is an extraordinary adventure (almost) to infinity.
Written by a mathe-magician with a Pi-passion, in these pages you’ll meet a man who memorized ten thousand digits—and get a chance to try yourself. You’ll read about a Pi paradox and a Pi magic trick and laugh at more Pi jokes than you ever thought you’d hear. We can’t ever know Pi, but there sure is a lot to learn!
★ "An astonishing, delightful, and illuminating celebration of mathe-magics." – Kirkus (STARRED review)
★ "This fun, informative, and highly visual title is a unique addition that belongs on the “M” shelf in all STEM collections." – Booklist (STARRED review)
“Explore the fascinating world of Pi! Part humor and part science, this book takes you on a playful journey through the astonishing history of this unique number.” – Hugo Duminil-Copin, Winner of the Fields Medal, the highest honor in mathematics
"The book is loaded with colorful illustrations and diagrams to help readers understand Pi. The diagrams are helpful when explaining strategies and applying them to solve problems. Definitions of mathematical terms are found at the bottom of the pages where they’re used and at the back of the book" - YA Books Central
"Fun illustrations encourage kids to think and ask questions, math history is delivered in a lively format that personalizes the tale of discovery, and how Pi was made irrational receives embellishments that will delight many an adult as well as its intended picture book audience." - Donovan's Literary Services
"This book takes a fun look at the math behind Pi and the history of mathematicians who first discovered the many decimal points of this amazing number! It’s explained in a simple way for children to understand, and written with a lot of cute jokes and witty anecdotes to keep readers engaged." - Luminous Libro
"90 pages about one number? This book about Pi is a perfect hit." –Die Zeit"Now that’s some next level nerdery!" - Besty Bird, A Fuse #8 Production
"This comprehensive and in-depth investigation of pi is a useful addition to nonfiction collections for math enthusiasts from elementary school students to adults.” - Mary Lanni Reads
"This is a lovely book about math, numbers, how they shape the world around us, and weird questions only weird mathe-magicians might ask!” - GeekDad
"If any nonfiction picture book can attract kids to math through engaging imaginations, it's The Big Book of Pi" - The Midwest Book Review, Children's Bookwatch
"The proofs behind historic examples cited and a glossary round out this very entertaining look at Pi and its never-ending digits." - BooksYALove
Winner of the "Prix Tangente du Livre 2026" in France.
Anita Lehmann is an author for children and adults alike. She grew up in Bern, studied economics and social history at the University of Geneva and lived in various places around the world before settling in Cambridge with her family. She is the author of several children's books published by Helvetiq and Bergli.
Joonas Sildre has illustrated more than thirty books and graphic novels. He lives in Estonia.
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