The Art and Craft of Problem Solving

A distinctive text that uniquely blends interesting problems with strategies, tools, and techniques to develop the mathematical skill and intuition necessary for problem solving. Students are encouraged to do math rather than just study it. The author draws upon his experience as a coach for the International Mathematics Olympiad to give students an enhanced sense of mathematics and the ability to investigate and solve problems. The book assumes the role of a friendly coach, teaching not just by exposition, but by exhortation, example, and challenge.

The target audience is college math majors, but the book is certainly accessible to advanced high school students and to people reading on their own, especially teachers (at any level). 

Paul Zeitz studied history at Harvard and received a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley. He currently is an associate professor at the University of San Francisco. He won the USA Mathematical Olympiad (USAMO) and was a member of the first American team to participate in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) in 1974. Since 1985, he has composed and edited problems for several national math contests, including the USAMO and helped train several American IMO teams, most notably the 1994 "Dream Team" which, for the first time in history, achieved a perfect score. In 2003, he received the Deborah Tepper Haimo award, a national teaching award for college and university math, given by the Math Association of America.