Althea's Math Mysteries
(4 books, coming soon)

Who is Althea?

Here's what she says in the beginning of the first book:

We live in a funky old house - me, my brother Rudy, and our moms. I get to homeschool now, and I love being able to read all day one day, ride my bike for miles and miles the next day, and then play around with math problems the day after that.

And of course there’s my cookie-baking project. I’m trying to make as many different kinds of cookies as I can.  Yum. 

What are Althea's Math Mysteries?

Young adult novels with math exploration at the center.  Imagine hanging out with Althea and her friends, and learning math with them. (So much nicer than a textbook.) The mysteries are in the math: 

• Why did mathematicians ever create something as strange as imaginary numbers?

• Why are triangles are the only shape that can’t collapse?

• Why do the squares of the legs in a right triangle add up to the square of the hypotenuse?

• Why does the formula for a circle use the Pythagorean theorem (aka right triangle theorem) with different letters?

• Why do the digits of pi go on forever?

• What does pi actually means?

• Why is division by zero a problem?

Who is the author?

Sue VanHattum. I live in Richmond, California, just a few minutes north of Berkeley, where Althea's stories take place. I've taught math for over 35 years, always looking for ways to help more students make sense of it. When I was younger, there were three things I wanted to be: a teacher, a mom, and a fiction writer. I just retired from full-time teaching and now I teach one course for Art of Problem Solving (aka Beast Academy). My son is 24 now (he's one of my best editors). My book Playing With Math: Stories from Math Circles, Homeschoolers, and Passionate Teachers was published in 2015. But that wasn't fiction. I am now in awe of the magic of characters who tell me who they are. I feel like a good fairy bonked me on the head and turned me into a fiction writer. It is a lot of work, but wow, do I love doing it!

This series of books might be thought of as barely fiction. It's somewhere between fiction and a really good textbook. I want everyone who enjoys math and wants more of it to have lots of math stories to learn from. The Althea Stories are my contribution to this small but growing genre.

Which book should I read first?

Whichever one strikes your fancy! Each book can be read on its own.

Wait, where's book 3? 

The 3rd book will be Althea and the Mysteries of Infinity, in which Althea and her friends explore the many ways infinity can show up when we're playing with math. In this book her brother Rudy and his friend Sami join them. I haven't yet seen a path through it, though I have lots of exciting ideas. My good friend L is hoping to help me find that path.

Would you like to help make these books better? 

You can be a beta reader, and offer me feedback. Just email me at altheasmathmysteries@gmail.com to request one of the books.

Do you like writing fanfiction? 

Here's your chance! Write new scenes for any of the books, and email them to me at altheasmathmysteries@gmail.com. I'll post them here if they're age-appropriate. 

The math/story books that inspired me