What do you think?
Rate this book
Maryam's Magic: The Story of Mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani
From Althea Gibson author Megan Reid and rising star artist Aaliya Jaleel, illustrator of Under My Hijab, comes the first picture book about trailblazing mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, the first woman to win the world’s most prestigious honor in mathematics. Perfect for fans of Hidden Figures and Mae Among the Stars.
As a little girl, Maryam Mirzakhani was spellbound by stories. She loved reading in Tehran’s crowded bookstores, and at home she'd spend hours crafting her own tales on giant rolls of paper.
Maryam loved school, especially her classes in reading and writing. But she did not like math. Numbers were nowhere near as interesting as the bold, adventurous characters she found in books. Until Maryam unexpectedly discovered a new genre of storytelling: In geometry, numbers became shapes, each with its own fascinating personality—making every equation a brilliant story waiting to be told.
As an adult, Maryam became a professor, inventing new formulas to solve some of math's most complicated puzzles. And she made history by becoming the first woman—and the first Iranian—to win the Fields Medal, mathematics’ highest award.
Maryam's Magic is the true story of a girl whose creativity and love of stories helped her—and the world—to see math in a new and inspiring way.
As a little girl, Maryam Mirzakhani was spellbound by stories. She loved reading in Tehran’s crowded bookstores, and at home she'd spend hours crafting her own tales on giant rolls of paper.
Maryam loved school, especially her classes in reading and writing. But she did not like math. Numbers were nowhere near as interesting as the bold, adventurous characters she found in books. Until Maryam unexpectedly discovered a new genre of storytelling: In geometry, numbers became shapes, each with its own fascinating personality—making every equation a brilliant story waiting to be told.
As an adult, Maryam became a professor, inventing new formulas to solve some of math's most complicated puzzles. And she made history by becoming the first woman—and the first Iranian—to win the Fields Medal, mathematics’ highest award.
Maryam's Magic is the true story of a girl whose creativity and love of stories helped her—and the world—to see math in a new and inspiring way.
34 pages, Hardcover
First published January 19, 2021
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
July 24, 2021
Author Megan Reid and illustrator Aaliya Jaleel tell the story of Maryam Mirzakhani, the first woman, and the first person of Iranian descent, to win the Fields Medal for mathematics, in this lovely picture-book biography. Preferring storytelling and art to math as a young person, Maryam eventually discovered the beauty of this previously despised discipline when she was introduced to geometry, which seemed to her to tell a story of its own. Together with her friend Roya, she threw herself into mathematics, winning honors at a number of international competitions for young people. Eventually, Mirzakhani emigrated to the United States, where she attended graduate school at Harvard, and became a professor of mathematics. In 2014 she became the first woman and first Iranian to win the Fields Medal. Sadly, not long after, in 2017, she died of breast cancer. The book concludes with an author's note, a timeline, and a list of further sources...
I had never heard of Maryam Mirzakhani before picking up Maryam's Magic: The Story of Mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, and am glad to have that gap in my knowledge rectified, as I always appreciate stories of groundbreaking people, men or women, who do great things. I found the story here particularly interesting, because it reminded me of my own childhood dislike of mathematics, and how the only class in the subject that I ever enjoyed was the one devoted to geometry and geometric proofs. It was therefore easy for me to identify with Mirzakhani, and the route she found into the larger world of mathematics. I also greatly appreciated that Mirzakhani was a person who was equally at home in the world of storytelling and art and that of math, as we often forget the links between the two, and treat them as if they were from two wholly discrete worlds - the Humanities and Science. As someone intrigued by E.O. Wilson's concept of consilience - that the humanities and science are not so different, and might be united and synthesized into one body of knowledge - I found this quality of Mirzakhani's quite appealing. The accompanying artwork from Jaleel, created digitally, is colorful and appealing, and enhanced my appreciation of the story.
If I had any critique to make of the book, it is that I didn't come away with a very clear understanding of its subject's actual mathematical concepts and theories. This may be partly (or mostly) owing to my own deficiencies in the subject, but I would have welcomed a rear note with more details, in this respect. Author Megan Reid confesses that she is no mathematician herself, so if this was beyond her, the publisher should have hired someone to draft such an explanation, making it suitable for younger children. Leaving this critique aside, I found this one both informative and entertaining, and would recommend it to young math lovers, or picture-book readers who enjoy stories of people who achieve great things.
I had never heard of Maryam Mirzakhani before picking up Maryam's Magic: The Story of Mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, and am glad to have that gap in my knowledge rectified, as I always appreciate stories of groundbreaking people, men or women, who do great things. I found the story here particularly interesting, because it reminded me of my own childhood dislike of mathematics, and how the only class in the subject that I ever enjoyed was the one devoted to geometry and geometric proofs. It was therefore easy for me to identify with Mirzakhani, and the route she found into the larger world of mathematics. I also greatly appreciated that Mirzakhani was a person who was equally at home in the world of storytelling and art and that of math, as we often forget the links between the two, and treat them as if they were from two wholly discrete worlds - the Humanities and Science. As someone intrigued by E.O. Wilson's concept of consilience - that the humanities and science are not so different, and might be united and synthesized into one body of knowledge - I found this quality of Mirzakhani's quite appealing. The accompanying artwork from Jaleel, created digitally, is colorful and appealing, and enhanced my appreciation of the story.
If I had any critique to make of the book, it is that I didn't come away with a very clear understanding of its subject's actual mathematical concepts and theories. This may be partly (or mostly) owing to my own deficiencies in the subject, but I would have welcomed a rear note with more details, in this respect. Author Megan Reid confesses that she is no mathematician herself, so if this was beyond her, the publisher should have hired someone to draft such an explanation, making it suitable for younger children. Leaving this critique aside, I found this one both informative and entertaining, and would recommend it to young math lovers, or picture-book readers who enjoy stories of people who achieve great things.
June 16, 2021
In 2014, Maryam Mirzakhani was the first woman and first Iranian to win the most prestigious award in mathematics, The Fields Medal. She was both an artist and a storyteller who was rewarded because of her magic wand theorem.
September 11, 2021
Interesting connection between math and art and a wonderful biography of a strong woman.
September 19, 2025
10/18/25
How did a person of this value die at age 40 of cancer in the midst of world class cancer predetection? Did she not have enough money? Her literal fields medal material is about a Magic Wand, and here is Terence Tao going on and on about how there's no magic in any of it. Her results exponentiated results in multiple fields. That process is pretty much magical when nobody else got even close. She died in 3 years of being the first woman to get the fields medal when it had been around for 78 years. We had world class encryrption specialists that were women, we had women doing world class pioneering computer science and engineering and chemistry content, and yet, the first one was 78 years later.
Mirzakhani is living proof that the most powerful left brain work communicates well and competently with truly powerful right brain work. Her art skills were the root of her mathematics skills, and her accuracy with this was the core of her skill. The holistic root of art was the exponentiating factor, it has the power to increase the efficiency of whole systems that were previously in unnecessary modularity due to lack of creativity on the issue.
Why did this person die of cancer at 40 as a literal professor at a world class cancer predetection facility? Is there any sign she didn't have enough money to pay this, and if so, what are the forensic patterns of this? This is utterly unacceptable especially when it happened 3 years after winning the fields. If I didn't know better, I would have half an eye for misogynist hate crime. in. the. united. states.
I also think it's critical to note that Iran viewed her left brain work as somehow more liberating and humanizing, "allowing" her to appear without her head scarf on valorized material. I do not think they would have allowed this if they didn't view her as a man in some way just for studying mathematics. It also shows you the burka is not for protection but a symbol of dehumanization and slavery, and that by not having the head scarf she has "bought her freedom" by getting glory to Iran by winning the fields using work associated with men. She "bought her freedom" doing a good job in work with only men in the room in many cases. That's how literal slaves are and were treated, they had to buy their freedom like that. These men literally view women as slaves. Because they have a vagina and ovaries. That is the only difference. They are that stupid. This woman exponentiated work in multiple fields. And we could have lost that to someone being unable to look past the fact she had a vagina and ovaries. Luckily, at least at that time, there was sufficient intelligence in the world to at least get her to a child's. book. level. of. recognition. A. child's. book. Where's the adult book? Where's the movie? Seriously. All I can find is a child's. book. by. someone. who. didn't. even. know. about. her. until. she. died. For this amazing woman. That's horrific in itself to me. Why are we making Mad Max remakes in the most violating fashion I have ever seen to make money when none of it goes to the victims when you have material right there for a fantastic film that would say everything Mad Max said for you, but in a way that actually happened? I hate these people. I really do.
Misogyny is male privileging narcissism. There's no ifs, ands, or buts.
This person is clearly a woman. But because she reminds men of themselves and what they're interested in, now she's more of a human and can remove the headscarf.
Misogyny is male privileging narcissism. There's no ifs, ands, or buts.
Why did this person die of cancer in the hotspot of cancer treatment in the effing world at age 40 leaving behind a child?
This was very clearly a woman. This was not a man. She wanted to be a writer and she was an artist before she was a mathematician. Then she fell in love with math because the right conditions were of a revolutionary kind that opened this up to women for the first time in her country. If she had those conditions initially, I don't think it would've just been writing and art from the beginning. They were squashing her down into what is "female" and "male". Holy horrific. How many women is this happening to that could get results like hers? Mirzakhani is probably exactly what Nikola Tesla had in mind when he said there is trapped intelligence in the female gender that nobody halfway intelligent cannot see trapped there. Unbelievable. Merkel, Mirzakhani. Who else. The misogyny is so intellectually stunted it's holding us all back. Who cares if it's compulsive. We can't afford them not to have control of their compulsive behavior anymore if this is who it costs.
10/16/25
I never did Olympiad nor do I have any interest in Olympiad.
Terence Tao is processing feelings for this person still on random people that are nothing like her. Some of these processings show he hated her, others are just like wtf this person is nothing like her and that is a S T R E T C H. Looks like the feelings are obliterative envy based, like how gay men twist their hostility into attraction in many cases, but towards a woman instead. Let me guess. Did she seem more like a man so it was ok as a man to be attracted to her because she was successful? Because being a woman is the mark of failure. So if she's successful she's a man and it's ok to treat her like a gay man. No. She was a straight woman from everything I am reading. You don't treat that like a gay man or trying to gaslight your way into treating her with homosexual male dynamics. Let me guess. She was constantly misgendered. You're not gay, your sexuality is capitalism and you need to be its winner if you are willing to pretzel someone's gender from obliterative envy. Your sexuality is just cancer capitalism in such a case.
She died of cancer. She was constantly harassed. With the help of Terence Tao. I have repeatedly had to clock out literally sick from aggressive harassment. I have never seen a straight male continue to weaponize harassment after being spoken to about its deleterious effects on the victim's health. I have only seen a closeted gay male jealous of a woman do this. If the woman doesn't remind him enough of his gay presence in drag or otherwise, he will continue "tanking" her in this way. That's a gay male when the woman clearly won on her merit in an inarguable way. Mathematics, especially Olympiad, is really hard to fake and defraud but with increasing hacking infiltration, especially enabled by fake AI concerns from Google, publication fraud is becoming more common. Same thing is happening in legal with AI hacking being used to create illegal predecision. Like students that refuse to accept the teacher is smarter than them and has something to teach them, these courts similarly can be expected to flunk. And they do. And everyone pays.
The only time I've seen this kind of mathematics is in the Moscow puzzles, which as read below, is run by a man profiled for his injustice collecting as some kind of repressed homosexual with a strong reactance. The Moscow puzzle math is like that too. It doesn't show a ton of comprehension of why you can't and can do certain things thinking ahead for the long run. In general, I'd say the failure to think ahead with the one child policy femicide that literally viewed men as a stronger win than women is exactly this failure to think ahead Moscow puzzle injustice collecting style mathematics. So profile achieved on both. That's pretty homosexual man on man in a capitalist way of China, allegedly the imperialist woman of the UK's man in terms of being strangled and colonized. That certainly stinks of their sexuality is just capitalism again.
She was on his hot women in math incel list.
He takes shots on magic in his Masterclass likely because of the title of this book. He had some issue with her while she was on his incel list at the same time.
Looks like men like him are weaponizing harassment to sabotage people we're professionally jealous of because it seems like a socially acceptable way to sabotage a woman in an allegedly gentleman based world. But they do it like a homosexual male, sabotaging the career with the harassment, this is not how a straight male acts with real infatuation and care at the end, not death, career loss, or worse at the hands of constant harassment. This seems like a gay male weaponizing harassment because it is socially acceptable and seems straight but works to sabotage a woman they are professionally jealous of. This is not straight male behavior. Watching a woman you're allegedly attracted to, thus the harrassment behavior, do that poorly and enjoy it is the pattern of a homosexual male professionally jealous of a woman and looking for a socially acceptable cover for it. Straight men might struggle with this but in the end they are genuinely and legitimately concerned and don't want to sabotage but to help, they're just really bad at it. This is not Terence Tao's pattern of behavior. It is sabotaging, hostile and weaponizing harassment in a way that would better fit the profile of a homosexual male using beard behavior that is socially acceptable to sabotage women, make them sick, and destroy their careers. Mark my words. This is not how straight men act. They don't watch women do poorly, suffer, or otherwise after harassing them and enjoy it or receive schadenfreude from it. That is how a gay male in obliterative envy acts. A straight male would likely try to resolve the situation, yet if they were that bad at it, they would just be bad at it. They wouldn't be overtly mocking, enjoying via schadenfreude as relief from obliterative envy the harassed victim's misfortune and hostile mockery of the unacceptable conditions of the victim's current existence, which increasingly resembled torture. That better fits the profile of a closeted homosexual male. It was profiled on Putin as injustice collecting where they believe a long history with anal sex, potentially including little boys as part of a gang in his past, fits with his enjoying witnessing injustice of women. It is the profile of a largely gay male with a reactance to his own gayness, at least in the case of Putin. Here the harassment looks weaponized to make the target sick in an injustice collecting markedly homosexual way as well.
That's all I have to say.
#militaryintelligence #theyvegotanintotopamericanmilitaryintelligence #itsmygoodreads
How did a person of this value die at age 40 of cancer in the midst of world class cancer predetection? Did she not have enough money? Her literal fields medal material is about a Magic Wand, and here is Terence Tao going on and on about how there's no magic in any of it. Her results exponentiated results in multiple fields. That process is pretty much magical when nobody else got even close. She died in 3 years of being the first woman to get the fields medal when it had been around for 78 years. We had world class encryrption specialists that were women, we had women doing world class pioneering computer science and engineering and chemistry content, and yet, the first one was 78 years later.
Mirzakhani is living proof that the most powerful left brain work communicates well and competently with truly powerful right brain work. Her art skills were the root of her mathematics skills, and her accuracy with this was the core of her skill. The holistic root of art was the exponentiating factor, it has the power to increase the efficiency of whole systems that were previously in unnecessary modularity due to lack of creativity on the issue.
Why did this person die of cancer at 40 as a literal professor at a world class cancer predetection facility? Is there any sign she didn't have enough money to pay this, and if so, what are the forensic patterns of this? This is utterly unacceptable especially when it happened 3 years after winning the fields. If I didn't know better, I would have half an eye for misogynist hate crime. in. the. united. states.
I also think it's critical to note that Iran viewed her left brain work as somehow more liberating and humanizing, "allowing" her to appear without her head scarf on valorized material. I do not think they would have allowed this if they didn't view her as a man in some way just for studying mathematics. It also shows you the burka is not for protection but a symbol of dehumanization and slavery, and that by not having the head scarf she has "bought her freedom" by getting glory to Iran by winning the fields using work associated with men. She "bought her freedom" doing a good job in work with only men in the room in many cases. That's how literal slaves are and were treated, they had to buy their freedom like that. These men literally view women as slaves. Because they have a vagina and ovaries. That is the only difference. They are that stupid. This woman exponentiated work in multiple fields. And we could have lost that to someone being unable to look past the fact she had a vagina and ovaries. Luckily, at least at that time, there was sufficient intelligence in the world to at least get her to a child's. book. level. of. recognition. A. child's. book. Where's the adult book? Where's the movie? Seriously. All I can find is a child's. book. by. someone. who. didn't. even. know. about. her. until. she. died. For this amazing woman. That's horrific in itself to me. Why are we making Mad Max remakes in the most violating fashion I have ever seen to make money when none of it goes to the victims when you have material right there for a fantastic film that would say everything Mad Max said for you, but in a way that actually happened? I hate these people. I really do.
Misogyny is male privileging narcissism. There's no ifs, ands, or buts.
This person is clearly a woman. But because she reminds men of themselves and what they're interested in, now she's more of a human and can remove the headscarf.
Misogyny is male privileging narcissism. There's no ifs, ands, or buts.
Why did this person die of cancer in the hotspot of cancer treatment in the effing world at age 40 leaving behind a child?
This was very clearly a woman. This was not a man. She wanted to be a writer and she was an artist before she was a mathematician. Then she fell in love with math because the right conditions were of a revolutionary kind that opened this up to women for the first time in her country. If she had those conditions initially, I don't think it would've just been writing and art from the beginning. They were squashing her down into what is "female" and "male". Holy horrific. How many women is this happening to that could get results like hers? Mirzakhani is probably exactly what Nikola Tesla had in mind when he said there is trapped intelligence in the female gender that nobody halfway intelligent cannot see trapped there. Unbelievable. Merkel, Mirzakhani. Who else. The misogyny is so intellectually stunted it's holding us all back. Who cares if it's compulsive. We can't afford them not to have control of their compulsive behavior anymore if this is who it costs.
10/16/25
I never did Olympiad nor do I have any interest in Olympiad.
Terence Tao is processing feelings for this person still on random people that are nothing like her. Some of these processings show he hated her, others are just like wtf this person is nothing like her and that is a S T R E T C H. Looks like the feelings are obliterative envy based, like how gay men twist their hostility into attraction in many cases, but towards a woman instead. Let me guess. Did she seem more like a man so it was ok as a man to be attracted to her because she was successful? Because being a woman is the mark of failure. So if she's successful she's a man and it's ok to treat her like a gay man. No. She was a straight woman from everything I am reading. You don't treat that like a gay man or trying to gaslight your way into treating her with homosexual male dynamics. Let me guess. She was constantly misgendered. You're not gay, your sexuality is capitalism and you need to be its winner if you are willing to pretzel someone's gender from obliterative envy. Your sexuality is just cancer capitalism in such a case.
She died of cancer. She was constantly harassed. With the help of Terence Tao. I have repeatedly had to clock out literally sick from aggressive harassment. I have never seen a straight male continue to weaponize harassment after being spoken to about its deleterious effects on the victim's health. I have only seen a closeted gay male jealous of a woman do this. If the woman doesn't remind him enough of his gay presence in drag or otherwise, he will continue "tanking" her in this way. That's a gay male when the woman clearly won on her merit in an inarguable way. Mathematics, especially Olympiad, is really hard to fake and defraud but with increasing hacking infiltration, especially enabled by fake AI concerns from Google, publication fraud is becoming more common. Same thing is happening in legal with AI hacking being used to create illegal predecision. Like students that refuse to accept the teacher is smarter than them and has something to teach them, these courts similarly can be expected to flunk. And they do. And everyone pays.
The only time I've seen this kind of mathematics is in the Moscow puzzles, which as read below, is run by a man profiled for his injustice collecting as some kind of repressed homosexual with a strong reactance. The Moscow puzzle math is like that too. It doesn't show a ton of comprehension of why you can't and can do certain things thinking ahead for the long run. In general, I'd say the failure to think ahead with the one child policy femicide that literally viewed men as a stronger win than women is exactly this failure to think ahead Moscow puzzle injustice collecting style mathematics. So profile achieved on both. That's pretty homosexual man on man in a capitalist way of China, allegedly the imperialist woman of the UK's man in terms of being strangled and colonized. That certainly stinks of their sexuality is just capitalism again.
She was on his hot women in math incel list.
He takes shots on magic in his Masterclass likely because of the title of this book. He had some issue with her while she was on his incel list at the same time.
Looks like men like him are weaponizing harassment to sabotage people we're professionally jealous of because it seems like a socially acceptable way to sabotage a woman in an allegedly gentleman based world. But they do it like a homosexual male, sabotaging the career with the harassment, this is not how a straight male acts with real infatuation and care at the end, not death, career loss, or worse at the hands of constant harassment. This seems like a gay male weaponizing harassment because it is socially acceptable and seems straight but works to sabotage a woman they are professionally jealous of. This is not straight male behavior. Watching a woman you're allegedly attracted to, thus the harrassment behavior, do that poorly and enjoy it is the pattern of a homosexual male professionally jealous of a woman and looking for a socially acceptable cover for it. Straight men might struggle with this but in the end they are genuinely and legitimately concerned and don't want to sabotage but to help, they're just really bad at it. This is not Terence Tao's pattern of behavior. It is sabotaging, hostile and weaponizing harassment in a way that would better fit the profile of a homosexual male using beard behavior that is socially acceptable to sabotage women, make them sick, and destroy their careers. Mark my words. This is not how straight men act. They don't watch women do poorly, suffer, or otherwise after harassing them and enjoy it or receive schadenfreude from it. That is how a gay male in obliterative envy acts. A straight male would likely try to resolve the situation, yet if they were that bad at it, they would just be bad at it. They wouldn't be overtly mocking, enjoying via schadenfreude as relief from obliterative envy the harassed victim's misfortune and hostile mockery of the unacceptable conditions of the victim's current existence, which increasingly resembled torture. That better fits the profile of a closeted homosexual male. It was profiled on Putin as injustice collecting where they believe a long history with anal sex, potentially including little boys as part of a gang in his past, fits with his enjoying witnessing injustice of women. It is the profile of a largely gay male with a reactance to his own gayness, at least in the case of Putin. Here the harassment looks weaponized to make the target sick in an injustice collecting markedly homosexual way as well.
That's all I have to say.
#militaryintelligence #theyvegotanintotopamericanmilitaryintelligence #itsmygoodreads
May 3, 2021
I was so thrilled to learn about Maryam! Not to sound sexist, but it's so refreshing to learn about female mathematicians, like Maryam Mirzakhani and Katherine Johnson. Being a lover of math myself, I find this very inspirational. Great book!
March 20, 2021
This one was a 3.5 for me. It was great to have this groundbreaker's story told, but I still struggled to understand the connection between stories and geometry, but then again, geometry has always left me feeling rather clueless. Maybe I needed a tutor like her. Strangely, Maryam Mirzakhani, the first woman and first Iranian to win a prestigious mathematics prize, the Fields Medal, didn't like math when she was growing up. Instead, she loved to write, tell, and illustrate stories. But when a teacher introduced her and her fellow students to geometry when she was 12, Maryam was hooked and began seeing the stories and pictures behind the shapes. After winning an international mathematics competition, Maryam decided to devote her life to mathematics. Her theories and discoveries would become central to the work of rocket scientists, meteorologists, and epidemiologists. The final pages celebrate Maryam's accomplishments with a reminder of the challenges she faced in her career. Sadly, she died of breast cancer at 40, leaving readers to marvel at her accomplishments in such a short time and to wonder about what else she might have accomplished. The digital illustrations bring this remarkable woman and her imagination to life in the book's pages. Readers will want to read the Author's Note about Megan Reid's own mathematical experiences as well as making note of the list of important dates and places to learn more about Maryam. The end papers add to the book's appeal since they feature geometric drawings and formulas and offer some insight into how Maryam might have seen the world. Readers who love stories about strong women, unseen heroes or hidden figures in history will enjoy this book. I had never heard of her before reading it, and of course, now I want to know more.
January 21, 2021
Maryam's Magic: The Story of Mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani is a children's picture book written by Megan Reid and illustrated by Aaliya Jaleel. It centers on the achievements of mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani – first woman and first Iranian to win the Fields Medal, the most important award in the field of mathematics.
Maryam Mirzakhani was an Iranian mathematician and a professor of mathematics at Stanford University. Her research topics included Teichmüller theory, hyperbolic geometry, ergodic theory, and symplectic geometry.
Reid's text is rather simplistic, straightforward, and informative. Reid delves into Maryam’s life, describing her studies and interests in high school and college in Iran, her pursuit of a graduate degree at Harvard University, her winning the Fields Medal in 2014, and her death in 2017, at the age of 40. Backmatter includes an author's note, a timeline and further readings. Jaleel’s soft cartoons pair well with Reid's words, reinforcing that Maryam was not just a math genius, but someone who loved books and used stories to solve tough problems.
The premise of the book is rather straightforward. As a young girl, Maryam was a storyteller and an avid reader – her favorite street was filled with bookstores. She was not, however, a fan of math until she discovered geometry, which made her feel like every number held a story. It was because of geometry, which would lead Maryam to win the Fields Medal.
All in all, Maryam's Magic: The Story of Mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani is wonderful book highlighting an important figure and demonstrates that one can excel in more than one field at a time.
Maryam Mirzakhani was an Iranian mathematician and a professor of mathematics at Stanford University. Her research topics included Teichmüller theory, hyperbolic geometry, ergodic theory, and symplectic geometry.
Reid's text is rather simplistic, straightforward, and informative. Reid delves into Maryam’s life, describing her studies and interests in high school and college in Iran, her pursuit of a graduate degree at Harvard University, her winning the Fields Medal in 2014, and her death in 2017, at the age of 40. Backmatter includes an author's note, a timeline and further readings. Jaleel’s soft cartoons pair well with Reid's words, reinforcing that Maryam was not just a math genius, but someone who loved books and used stories to solve tough problems.
The premise of the book is rather straightforward. As a young girl, Maryam was a storyteller and an avid reader – her favorite street was filled with bookstores. She was not, however, a fan of math until she discovered geometry, which made her feel like every number held a story. It was because of geometry, which would lead Maryam to win the Fields Medal.
All in all, Maryam's Magic: The Story of Mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani is wonderful book highlighting an important figure and demonstrates that one can excel in more than one field at a time.
October 13, 2021
When Maryam was young, she used to tell her sister wonderful stories, she loved bookstores and drawing the worlds she imagined. Se wanted to be a writer when she grew up. When she was twelve, her teacher introduced her to geometry, and she started to make up stories about shapes - soon, her love of math turned into acclaim, as she and her best friend won an international mathematics contest. She attended Harvard University, and as an adult, crafted mathematical formulas that actually changed the way we see the world, eventually winning the highest award given to mathematicians.
I loved how Maryam's interests evolved, and combined - math, art, storytelling. Aaliya Jaleel's illustrations are beautiful and colorful. A nice, concise biography of Dr. Mirzakhani. Includes a timeline and additional resources.
Cross posted to http://kissthebookjr.blogspot.com
I loved how Maryam's interests evolved, and combined - math, art, storytelling. Aaliya Jaleel's illustrations are beautiful and colorful. A nice, concise biography of Dr. Mirzakhani. Includes a timeline and additional resources.
Cross posted to http://kissthebookjr.blogspot.com
February 16, 2021
As a person who has really struggled with mathematics my whole life, I found this book really encouraging and beautiful. Maryam loved reading and writing stories and didn't like math...until she found a way to use what she loved to helped her understand what she was struggling with. The idea of using story and art to help understand something so logical as math really spoke to me and made me consider as an educator how we could better engage children by using their strengths to help them in their weaknesses. I found Maryam a fascinating individual with truly amazing talents and was so sad to read at the end that she had just passed away a few years ago at such a young age. She has become a new inspiration!
April 2, 2021
In 2014, Maryam Mirzakhani became the first woman in the world to win the Fields Medal, widely considered to be the Nobel Prize of mathematics. She was also the first Iranian to receive the award.
The book has great pictures that inspire feelings of wonder. The text is very wordy and better suited for older children who can understand the words and the context of Maryam's story. I would say that the connection between storytelling and mathematics was not made clear through the storytelling in this book and could have been improved. Overall, this is a great story about women in science and a good reminder of the amazing contributions that immigrants make to the United States, as well, since she moved to the United States in 1999.
The book has great pictures that inspire feelings of wonder. The text is very wordy and better suited for older children who can understand the words and the context of Maryam's story. I would say that the connection between storytelling and mathematics was not made clear through the storytelling in this book and could have been improved. Overall, this is a great story about women in science and a good reminder of the amazing contributions that immigrants make to the United States, as well, since she moved to the United States in 1999.
March 31, 2021
That was fantastic! I love picture book biographies that teach me about people I never knew about before. I like how this one is a good balance of text and illustration (many picture book biographies are too text heavy in my opinion). I also like how this showed Maryam disliking math as a child but then becoming this amazing mathematician. It shows how we can look at things a new way if they are frustrating us. I love the author's note at the end and how Reid talks about how we aren't just one thing while relating to Maryam's love of both math, drawing, and storytelling.
A great book that I can't wait to order for my school library!
A great book that I can't wait to order for my school library!
June 7, 2021
This tells the story of Mirzakhani from childhood to her death.
I appreciate the framing of math as storytelling; that's one of the best aspects of this book and a really needed perspective. There's some negative framing of math early on that the book then combats through the rest; I have mixed feelings about doing that, but it turns out fine here.
The illustrations here are really colorful in appealing ways, but they don't do a good job of portraying Mirzakhani's math, even at a basic level. Explaining theoretical math in a picture book is hard, but Mirzakhani's work is very visual; getting at the general ideas -- or at least the right shapes! -- would be much better here. The only other picture book I know of about Mirzakhani (La Ingeniosa Maryam Mirzakhani, freely and legally available online and great if you can read in Spanish) is much better on this front and about explaining in an accessible but accurate way what she worked on; I'd say it has the less broadly appealing framing, though.
I appreciate the framing of math as storytelling; that's one of the best aspects of this book and a really needed perspective. There's some negative framing of math early on that the book then combats through the rest; I have mixed feelings about doing that, but it turns out fine here.
The illustrations here are really colorful in appealing ways, but they don't do a good job of portraying Mirzakhani's math, even at a basic level. Explaining theoretical math in a picture book is hard, but Mirzakhani's work is very visual; getting at the general ideas -- or at least the right shapes! -- would be much better here. The only other picture book I know of about Mirzakhani (La Ingeniosa Maryam Mirzakhani, freely and legally available online and great if you can read in Spanish) is much better on this front and about explaining in an accessible but accurate way what she worked on; I'd say it has the less broadly appealing framing, though.
September 30, 2021
Maryam is about my age but we grew up in two different worlds. She in Iran, me in the United States. I also didn't like math as a kid and still struggle with it and have never really concurred it. I always scored high on English, History, Social Studies etc but my math scores were very low.
This book tells a great story, but I have questions. I don't quite understand Magic Wand Theorem, but I will say, geometry is the ONLY math class I got an A in... because geometry makes sense!
I want to know more, and that is the sign of a good book!
This book tells a great story, but I have questions. I don't quite understand Magic Wand Theorem, but I will say, geometry is the ONLY math class I got an A in... because geometry makes sense!
I want to know more, and that is the sign of a good book!
Read
April 7, 2022Maryam's Magic is itself a magical book, the story of a woman who brought together math and storytelling and art. While it will be a bit of a sad read for those of us familiar with the late genius (and, evidently, polymath) Maryam Mirzakhani, Megan Reid's text and Aaliya Jaleel's gorgeous, swooping illustrations not only honor Mirzakhani's work and legacy but will be a wonderful way to encourage other kids who love stories and art to consider the storytelling and the artistic parts of math.
A wonderful book both for classroom and home.
A wonderful book both for classroom and home.
December 23, 2023
GREAT subject but not very well-written. And the illustrations were meh, especially one of the first few pages where the words say Maryam drew pictures that "were intricate and beautiful, each detail designed to make her favorite scenes shine" and the drawing is of grass, clouds, a sun, and some colored paisleys
The story jumps a lot which makes the book seem more like a kid's book report than an interesting story.
Instead of a timeline of dates in the back or the long author's note, a simplified description of Maryam's magical wand theory would have been great.
The story jumps a lot which makes the book seem more like a kid's book report than an interesting story.
Instead of a timeline of dates in the back or the long author's note, a simplified description of Maryam's magical wand theory would have been great.
September 13, 2021
Possible contender for the Mock Caldecott Awards in January 2022. I enjoyed reading about this mathematician who, as a young girl, almost gave up on even trying to understand mathematics...she was a story teller. Something fantastic happened when she finally learned about geometry...now she could tell stories with math problems. Fascinating book about this young woman. The illustrations were especially colorful.
January 11, 2021
Maryam Mirzakhani's life story is incredible and inspiring. While she disliked math as a child, as a young adult she learns to love geometry and goes on to be the first woman to win the Field Medal, the highest international prize in mathematics. This lively picture book shows math as it is rarely seen in classroom lessons: creative, alive and deeply meaningful.
December 15, 2022
Maryam didn't care for math until she discovered geometry. It worked well with her love of drawing. She was part of international mathematical competitions in high school. In 2014, she was the first woman and first Iranian to win the Fields Medal in Mathematics.
Author's note, timeline, and bibliography.
Author's note, timeline, and bibliography.
April 9, 2025
Great book about the life and legacy of Maryam Mirzakhani, the first woman and first Pakistani to win the Fields Medal. The illustrations are gorgeous and I loved learning about her initial dislike of math, and how she wanted to be an artist. I had similar struggles in school, but the further I got in math, the more it actually helped me with my art, because they’re inextricably entwined.
October 22, 2025
Das Buch „Maryam's Magic: The Story of Mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani“ erzählt die Geschichte einer außergewöhnlichen Frau (1977–2017) mit der Klarheit und Bewunderung, die Maryam selbst verdient. Es zeigt jungen Lesenden, wie Leidenschaft, Vorstellungskraft und Beharrlichkeit eine Welt erschaffen können, in der Mathematik zu einer Quelle von Staunen und Inspiration wird.
February 10, 2021
Such a wonderful story! A beautiful tribute to an amazing woman. Maryam Mirzakhani is the only woman to win a Fields Medal — the highest honor in mathematics. Can’t wait to share this amazing book with my English Language Learners who would see themselves represented on its pages.
Read
March 7, 2021In this fascinating picture book biography, learn about the life of amazing storyteller and mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, the first woman (and the first Iranian) to win the Fields Medal, the highest mathematics award.
April 15, 2021
Colorful illustrations, always here for a woman in STEM book! Love the positive representation of math. I wish it went into more detail about what some of her discoveries actually where and would've enjoyed more backmatter.
June 13, 2021
Feel like we missed some pretty big steps from "Oooh....geometry is cool" to medaling at the IMO. Especially since she hadn't liked math before geometry.
The words describe intricate drawings that she made to go with her stories as a child. The illustrations do not show intricate drawings.
The words describe intricate drawings that she made to go with her stories as a child. The illustrations do not show intricate drawings.
June 18, 2021
There are so many awesome picture books biographies being published. I was shocked to discover that Maryam Mirzakhani was the first women ever to win the Fields Medal in 2014. I can't wait to share this one with some of math colleagues.
January 24, 2022
Maryam Mirzakhani was a storyteller, an artist, and a mathematician! She was the first Iranian woman to win the Fields Meral and helped a large community with her "magic wand theorem. " This is such an inspirational story about Maryam's life. I highly recommend it for students in 2nd - 5th grade.
March 13, 2022
The book is very good, especially for children.
I think it's a great idea to have kids with a strong and intelligent woman
Get to know Ms. Maryam Mirzakhani. This lady is really inspiring to me and I felt good reading this book.
I suggest you read this book.
I think it's a great idea to have kids with a strong and intelligent woman
Get to know Ms. Maryam Mirzakhani. This lady is really inspiring to me and I felt good reading this book.
I suggest you read this book.
October 15, 2020
Inspiring biography that will connect for children the link between creativity and mathematics.
February 18, 2021
The story of mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, the first woman and the first Iranian to win the prestigious Fields Medal. An important read, especially for those who love math.
March 8, 2021
An introduction to the mathematical genius who became the first woman and first Iranian to receive the field's most prestigious award.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews