Funk Rating: 10 out of 10
The subtitle of this book is "a romance in lower mathematics" -- and it's a treasure. A mere 80 pages (most with awesome pictures and few words), targeted to 4-8 year olds, and written almost 50 years ago, this has got to be the best love story I've read in a long, long time.
It's simple, told as a parable (so it's not preachy or too obvious), yet it has all the elements of love lost and found again, passion, a great work ethic, and the tragedy of a wasted life. The good guy gets the girl, and they live happily ever after (or reasonably so). The main characters, in case you haven't guessed, are a line, a dot, and a squiggle. Never could I have imagined what Juster was going to do with those simple concepts and a little math...
This is the type of book that reminds you what truly great writing is all about. It doesn't have to be long, but it does need to be wonderful. This one delivers the goods. If you're over about 6 years old, it will take about 10 minutes to read. But you'll want to read it over again and again, so give yourself half an hour to treasure it.
I have to say, though, that that stupid dot really bothers me. The line was too good for her.
Posted by: laura | February 23, 2007 at 06:11 PM