Kirkus praises THE FIVE SIDES OF MARJORIE RICE by Amy Alznauer in starred review: “Inspiration and validation for amateurs of all sorts, beautifully presented”

The story of an amateur mathematician who joined professional ones in a long quest to solve a geometric puzzle.

A brainy, hands-on child who saw patterns all around her, Marjorie Rice (nee Jeuck, 1923-2017) grew up fascinated by both geometry and art. As an adult, she read one of her son’s science magazines and learned that while all three- and four-sided geometric figures could be tessellated (or tiled together) endlessly without gaps, the same could be said of only a scant handful of pentagons. Notwithstanding her lack of formal training, Marjorie attempted to find other pentagons and succeeded, by inventing a systematic method that the author describes in detail. Alznauer wisely suggests that, worthy as her discovery was, even more laudable was the fact that she was motivated not by profit or prestige but, like all true “amateurs,” by love for the challenge and the beauty of the results. Bron reflects the latter in illustrations that incorporate most (or perhaps all) of the 15 possible tessellating pentagons into floors and backgrounds, into floral displays painted by Rice herself, and into views of her animated, slightly disheveled figure busily engaged in the daily business of running a household while thinking, envisioning, and sketching out ideas. Alznauer’s cogent, absorbing text captures Marjorie’s excitement and offers easily understood explanations of the math involved.

Inspiration and validation for amateurs of all sorts, beautifully presented.

(Picture-book biography. 7-9)