The Adventures of Ruby Pi and the Math Girls by Tom Durwood

 The Adventures of Ruby Pi and the Math Girls by Tom Durwood is a set of 5 mathematically inspired stories where the female protagonist, in different periods of time, uses the power of mathematics to solve mysteries and help with investigations. The key theme of this book is how mathematics can be used in everyday life.

I liked this book because it gives the reader an idea of how mathematics can be used in everyday life to solve many different problems. I also loved how the author used mathematical terminology throughout the book to describe various things, rather than non-mathematical terminology. I particularly loved the simile of the train as a vector, linking it to Newton's second law, F=MA, or force equals mass multiplied by acceleration. It is also good to see female protagonists in this often male-dominated subject, I hope it encourages more females to grow in mathematics.

However, it would have been nice to see more mathematics within this book, preferably more GCSE-level mathematics. I say this because this is, in some areas, more a book for A-Level Mathematics students as the maths covered is A-Level maths, such as Bayes Theorem and others. However, I very much doubt an A-Level student would want to read this book. I did not overly enjoy the book as it was a bit all over the place, meaning I struggled to understand the story and what was going on. Also, this is a very 'Woke' book as all the characters seem to be of an ethnic minority, including in one of the stories based in England, and I would argue that it sometimes portrays white English individuals in a negative light. I understand the need for more equality, but that does not mean presenting the minority in a better light than the majority, this just leads to further racism. I will not say anymore as this is a whole essay on race, discrimination and related themes.

Altogether, I rate this book 2 stars making this an alright book, although I personally did not enjoy it a lot of it, I did however enjoy the maths presented in the book and all the mathematical terminology used. I would like to thank NetGalley and Books Go Social for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book in return for an honest book review.