Bake Infinite Pie with X + Y

By: Eugenia Cheng, Amber Ren

Narrated by: Kim Mai Guest

Aspiring bakers will embrace this charming picture book about baking pie by using simple math, from one of the world’s most creative and celebrated mathematicians.

X + Y are dreaming of baking infinite pie. But they don’t know if infinite pie is real. With the help of quirky and uber-smart Aunt Z, and a whole lot of flour and butter, X and Y will learn that by using math they can bake their way to success!

This charming and tasty story from mathematician and author of How to Bake Pi, Eugenia Cheng, reassures young readers that math doesn’t have to be scary—especially when paired with pie!

Additional back matter includes: a letter from Eugenia encouraging readers not to be intimidated by math, explanations of the math concepts explored in the book, and a recipe for Banana Butterscotch Pie!

Great Way to Introduce Math Concepts to Kiddos

As a non-mathematical person who taught math to elementary students, I have great appreciation for this book because it uses everyday activities to explain much deeper mathematical concepts. I would have given this a much lower score, however, if it weren’t for the author’s addendum, which really does explain the concepts well. Except one. I would have given this book a five if she, at any point, actually explained infinite or how things are deemed finite. And as the children use the expression in colloquial ways as well, this doesn’t help define it. While there are infinite ways you can make pie, the pie itself is not infinite. It’s an important nuance that isn’t addressed. But so many other concepts are that I still give this a four. However, that’s a major omission as far as I’m concerned.