The son of a "great mago," Enzo isn't a very good magician. Actually, he dreams of becoming "a grande matematico" like Galileo or Kepler. Enzo tries to help a shoemaker figure out how to cut the pieces for 12 shoes from a single piece of leather, but when he misspeaks a spell, he turns the craftsman into a toad, then a goat. Putting magic aside, Enzo looks at the problem geometrically, rearranges the shapes, and finds a way to cut the pieces with minimal waste. While the story presents informational content through whimsical fiction, the broadly dramatic line-and-watercolor illustrations could have been more helpful in clarifying the concept of tessellation, particularly in the main example of shoemaking. The information in the glossary and notes seems more appropriate for an older audience. Still, the story and back matter at least introduce the concept of tessellation to young children. For larger collections.

A magician in training, Enzo is keener on math than magic. When he flubs a spell meant to help a shoemaker cobble twelve pairs of shoes from one piece of leather, Enzo turns to geometry, specifically tessellations, for help. The fantastical story doesn't fully explain the awkwardly tacked-on mathematics, but back matter helps clarify things. Spirited watercolor illustrations accompany the tale.

Two children work out a patterning problem in a tale that is more "math"--actually geometry--than "adventure." The tale is set in Renaissance Italy and illustrated with sweetly idyllic period scenes done in pale, low-contrast watercolors. The largely incidental plot hands Enzo, inept son of a magician, and his friend Aida, the shoemaker's little sister, a poser: It seems that the town's 12 princesses need new dancing shoes, and the penny-pinching castle housekeeper orders that they be made from a single piece of leather. The shoemaker Tessel insists it can't be done--but by disassembling one kind of shoe, trimming the pieces into geometric shapes and rearranging them, the young folk somehow manage a pattern that fits a dozen shoes (of a different kind, but never mind) onto the leather exactly. "I guess we'll have to call you a grande matematico," concludes Aida admiringly. The actual template is neither depicted nor described, and the simple repeated pattern imprinted on the leather in O'Neill's picture bears no obvious relationship to the finished shoes. Instead, in closing notes the author recapitulates her explanation of how tessellations are constructed and invites young viewers to re-examine the illustrations for tile floor patterns and other examples. Readers will come away with a little more knowledge about tiled patterns, if not shoemaking, but the visual and fictional wrapping does more to obscure the concept than illuminate it. (Picture book. 5-8)

Gr 3-5 Studying tessellations requires the energy of play and the focus of problem-solving, a wonderful subject for a story full of inspiration and blundering. Enzo is a magician's apprentice in late medieval Italy. His true passion is for the new ideas of mathematicians like Galileo and Kepler. As far as spell casting, he is no Strega Nona like his father. When the castle's housekeeper, renowned for her cruelty, requests 12 pairs of shoes to be made from one piece of fine leather for the 12 dancing princesses, the shoemaker Tessel comes running for Enzo's father, the local mago . He is away, so Enzo has to fill his shoes. He finds that using magic does not help when he inadvertently turns the shoemaker into a toad. Giving up on magic, he decides to take apart Tessel's shoe with Aida, the shoemaker's daughter. Once he turns to mathematics for inspiration, he and Aida begin to simplify the shapes, flip them, turn them, slide, and rotate them. They create a perigon of triangles and before long (and with a few laughs), they use tessellations successfully to meet the housekeeper's challenge. The illustrated glossary and notes in the back matter explain the mathematics, history, and current use of tessellations. The watercolor illustrations clearly and astutely express the necessary concepts, both mathematical and historical. There is even some fun embedded in them: 26 hidden tessellations for Where's Waldo fans. Sara Lissa Paulson, American Sign Language and English Lower School, New York City