one grain of rice a mathematical folktale by demi

'About this title' may belong to another edition of this title. 5-8) - Copyright �1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. This gratifying story of the disarming of greed provides an amazing look at the doubling process, and a calendar at the end shows how the reward simply grew and grew.

Day 21 garners 1,048,576 grains of rice on the last day it takes fold-out flaps to show the herd of elephants necessary to convey the rice to Rani, who feeds the masses and extracts from the raja a promise to be more generous. The raja, though, doesn't grasp the power of doubling. Her request is seemingly modest: a grain of rice on the first day, two grains the next, four grains on the third each day double the rice of the day before, for 30 days. When a young village girl, Rani, returns to the raja some rice that had fallen from baskets laden for his consumption, he offers her a reward. A few years later the harvest fails, and so does the raja: ``Promise or no promise, a raja must not go hungry,'' he intones. The raja of a rice-growing village orders his subjects to deliver to him the bulk of their harvest he will keep it safe should a famine occur. I think I like the illustrations and story somewhat more, and the math graph at the end is almost as nifty as the one in the other book. In artwork inspired by Indian miniatures (though lacking their exquisiteness), Demi (The Stonecutter, 1995, etc.) fashions a folktale with far-reaching effects. I recently read One Grain Of Rice A Mathematical Folktale by Demi and my Goodreads friend Krista told me of two other versions of the same tale, including this one. Remember your math? That's lots of rice: enough to feed a village for a good long time-and to teach a greedy raja a lesson. When offered a reward for a good deed, she asks only for one grain of rice, doubled each day for 30 days. It's the story of Rani, a clever girl who outsmarts a very selfish raja and saves her village. The narrative and the evocative illustrations combine to create a real sense of the culture and atmosphere of this romantic land.

Exotic, beautiful, and instructive, this 'mathematical folktale' by author-illustrator Demi emerged from her love of India.

One grain of rice a mathematical folktale by demi