Among the Odds & Evens: A Tale of Adventure

This arithmetic escapade whimsically alludes to classics by Jules Verne and H. Rider Haggard. The wayfaring variables X and Y discover a land inhabited by numerals when they crash their wood-and-canvas Aerocycle in the Kingdom of Wontoo (named for its founders, 1 and 2). As they repair their flying machine, X and Y study native customs. They observe that 2's and 4's are ""even-tempered,"" while 3's and 5's ""positively revel in peculiar dress and behavior--one might even call them quite odd!""; the illustrations show Evens practicing uniform dance steps and individualistic Odds performing solo circus stunts. X and Y also note a basic math rule: adding two Evens or two Odds always results in an Even number. ""It is only when one parent is Odd and the other is Even that we see Odd children. Most unletterlike!"" fumes X. Yet X and Y come around in the end. The Turners (The War Between the Vowels and the Consonants) investigate only the numerals zero through nine, which are depicted as antic stick figures with bold black numerals for torsos. They leave to adult imaginations X and Y's eventual families of numerical and alphabetical progeny, born of seemingly insoluble equations. Though the text serves primarily to string together the mathematical puns, in sum this slyly comic tale earns more pluses than minuses for its inventive approach. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)