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Summary
Summary
Nature's repeating patterns, better known as fractals, are beautiful, universal, and explain much about how things grow. Fractals can also be quantified mathematically. Here is an elegant introduction to fractals through examples that can be seen in parks, rivers, and our very own backyards.
Young readers will be fascinated to learn that broccoli florets are fractals--just like mountain ranges, river systems, and trees--and will share in the wonder of math as it is reflected in the world around us. Perfect for any elementary school classroom or library, Mysterious Patterns is an exciting interdisciplinary introduction to repeating patterns.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-6-The team who explored the Fibonacci sequence in Growing Patterns (Boyds Mills, 2010) returns with a similar book about fractals. Until 1975, there was no name for shapes in nature in which smaller parts looked like the whole shape. Then mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot, who had been thinking about and studying these patterns, named them fractals. Using clear text and outstanding color photographs, Campbell explores the concept of these unusual shapes. Beginning with circles, cones, and cylinders, she leads readers carefully and concisely through examples of fractals such as trees, rivers, mountains, broccoli, lightning, and lungs. The photographs, sometimes highlighting the ever-smaller pieces of a vegetable fractal against a black background, sometimes drawing back to give a aerial view of a geological feature, are crisp and precise and underscore the clear text. The book invites readers to construct a geometric fractal as a hands-on exemplar of the concept. An afterword reveals more of Mandelbrot's background and work, which will be an inspiration to budding scientists/mathematicians.-Marge Loch-Wouters, La Crosse Public Library, WI (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The husband-and-wife team behind Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature (2010) demystify the concept of fractals, which mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot used to help understand complicated shapes in nature. "Every fractal shape has smaller parts that look like the whole shape," explains Campbell, with an illustration of a tree's dividing branches making the idea instantly clear. Elsewhere, an image of the airways, veins, and arteries in a pair of human lungs beautifully illustrates the notion of repetition in fractal patterns, echoed through figurative language: "Lungs continue to develop inside our bodies throughout childhood, growing like a tree to fill the space inside our chests." This fascinating exploration should awaken readers' powers of observation and appreciation for the intricacies of nature. Ages 5-7. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Bring up the math term fractals in a roomful of adults, and it's likely quite a few eyes will glaze over. Yet wife-and-husband team Sarah and Richard Campbell (Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature, rev. 5/10) succeeds in making fractals accessible and engaging to -- get this -- the elementary-school crowd. Sarah Campbell's writing is clear, fluid, and concise, effortlessly so. She starts off with familiar examples of man-made shapes, such as spheres, cones, and cylinders, as well as items in nature that approximate these perfect shapes (spherical tomatoes, conical icicles, cylindrical cucumbers). She then moves on to nature's "rough, bristly, and bumpy" shapes -- complex shapes ignored by scientists until Benoit Mandelbrot arrived on the scene, coining the word fractals in 1975. Mandelbrot noticed that the shapes of trees, broccoli, and ferns all share a common pattern: each has "smaller parts that look like the whole shape." Take broccoli, for example: as parts of a head of broccoli are lopped off, the smaller pieces look like the original whole head. Glossy, well-designed pages feature crisp, up-close photographs, which pair perfectly with the text -- making this the go-to choice for introducing fractals to children (and grownups). Included are a brief glossary, a "Make Your Own Fractal" activity, and an afterword by a Mandelbrot colleague. tanya d. auger (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Through examples of what fractals are and what they aren't, this photo essay introduces a complex mathematical idea in a simple, inviting way. Using a straightforward text and eye-catching photographs, the Campbells start with the familiar: spheres, cones, cylindersshapes readers can find and readily name in their environments. But then they move on to the more elaborate forms: a head of broccoli, the flower of a Queen Anne's lace, a tree. In 1975, Benoit Mandelbrot gave a name to natural shapes with smaller parts that look like the whole shape. He called them fractals. Photographs of whole and divided flower and broccoli heads, set on plain backgrounds, demonstrate how smaller parts repeat the shape of the whole. A double-page spread of forked lightning shows another example. Even mountain ranges are made of smaller mountains. Further, smaller images remind readers that the shapes can be called fractals only if the repeating parts diminish in size. In conclusion, the author of Growing Patterns (2010) provides instructions for drawing the interesting fractal pattern that surrounds each page number. An afterword by mathematician Michael Frame offers more information about Mandelbrot and introduces the possibility of a real-world application of this abstract idea: invisibility cloaks! For visual learners, this is a particularly accessible demonstration of an intriguing concept. (Informational picture book. 5-9)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The creators of Growing Patterns: Fibonacci Numbers in Nature (2010) present another mathematical concept related to patterns and fractals. After introducing classic geometric shapes, the discussion shifts to Mandelbrot's observations of fractals with a brief explanation (Every fractal shape has smaller parts that look like the whole shape) and a series of examples. In the first, a line segment branches into a Y, with each arm branching again and again into ever smaller Y's, while an adjacent photo shows a bare-branched tree. Many clear color photos illustrate the examples, which include a broccoli crown, a clustered flower head, lightning, and a mountain range. The latter may be hard for children to grasp as an example of fractals, as there's little clarification and no graphic aid apart from a photo of mountain peaks. The afterword comments on Mandelbrot and some possible applications of his ideas (invisibility cloaks, anyone?). While clearer explanations would have made this a stronger book, this beautifully designed volume is a useful resource and, apparently, the only children's book devoted to fractals.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2014 Booklist
