Ernő Rubik and His Magic Cube

By Kerry Aradhya and Kara Kramer

Informational Resources:

Author Information: 

Kerry Aradhya's website:

https://www.kerryaradhya.com/

Illustrator Information:

Kara Kramer's website:

https://karakramer.com/

Activities & Resources:

Activities:

Meet Ernő Rubik, the inventor of the Rubik's Cube: (9:21)

https://www.realclearscience.com/video/2024/12/06/meet_ern_rubik_the_inventor_of_the_rubiks_cube_1076834.html

Ernő Rubik Facts for Kids:

https://kids.kiddle.co/Ern%C5%91_Rubik

Learn more about geometric puzzles, the Rubik's Cube, and the making of ERNŐ RUBIK AND HIS MAGIC CUBE in this episode of StoryMakers with host Rocco Staino and author Kerry Aradhya. https://www.kidlit.tv/2024/06/storymakers-with-kerry-aradhya-erno-rubik-and-his-magic-cube/

This resource includes word puzzles, shape puzzles, geometric coloring sheets, and design activities to use in the classroom or at home.

https://peachtreebooks.com/Activity_Event/ErnoRubikandHisMagicCubePuzzlePack.pdf

How to solve the Rubik's Cube:

https://www.speedcube.us/pages/how-to-solve-a-rubiks-cube

How to take apart and reassemble a Rubik's Cube: (8:58)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OM39KfNazg

Explore the timeline and the official Rubik's Cube history:

https://www.rubiks.com/history

Rubik's Cube Facts for Kids:

https://kids.kiddle.co/Rubik%27s_Cube

Video of the entire history of the Rubik's Cube: (4:53)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmKO4YgeffY

MakerSpace Activities:

How to draw a Rubik's Cube: (6:32)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS3EjrIjsS4

Collect Rubik's Cubes and then create your very own Rubik's Cube Mosaic using the online Rubik's Cube Mosaic Generator:

https://ruwix.com/rubiks-cube-mosaic-generator/

Making a fully functional Rubik's Cube out of paper: (13:19)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0NNvcFDwKw

Origami Rubik's Cube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25wLNHgQaUg (22:46

Discussion Questions:

Based on the cover image, what are your predictions about this book?

Where was Ernő from?  

What things did Ernő love? What did he love most of all?

How did Ernő prefer to spend his time?

What were Ernő's favorite playmates?

Where and how did Ernő spend his summers?

What was Ernő's profession? What did he do within this profession?

Ernő decided to build a big cube out of little cubes. Tell us about some of the ways he tried and failed to do this.

What two things did Ernő originally try to hold the cube together?

What was Ernő doing when he came up with the answer of what to do to finally make the cube move smoothly? What made him think of this answer?

What shape is in the middle of a Rubik's Cube?

How many cubes surround that one center shape?

What colors are a part of the original cube?

How old was Ernő when he created the cube?

What other Rubik's products did Ernő create?

Book Talk Teasers:

Read the reader's theater for Erno Rubik and His Magic Cube.

Watch the book trailer on the Texas Bluebonnet Award website.

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Reviews:

Booklist (April 1, 2024 (Vol. 120, No. 15))

Grades K-3. Though not big on biographical details, this tribute to the inventor of a puzzle with worldwide sales of more than 450 million does capture a strong sense of how much hard work he put into its conception and construction. Even as a child in Budapest, Ernö loved playing with puzzles, mechanical gadgets, and geometric shapes. Kramer’s illustrations reflect this fascination by incorporating lots of small squares, grids, cubes, and tessellated patterns into scenes of the solitary child growing into a solitary, abstracted young man pursuing his idea through false starts and multiple failures on the way to the successful 1974 widget he called a Magic Cube (“Bűvös Kocka”). The illustrator does slip a photo of Rubik into a final painted gathering of young twisters and turners, and Aradhya closes with brief additional comments about his life, along with fascinating numerical facts about the Rubik's Cube itself and its subsequent history.