The Rajah's Rice: A Mathematical Folktale from India

When Zandra, the official bather of the Rajah's elephants, saves them from serious illness, she exacts from the Rajah a reward more costly than he realizes

Ages 5-8. When Chandra, an Indian village girl who bathes the raja's elephants, cures the beasts after they fall ill, the raja offers her jewels as a reward. She refuses, accepting only a measure of rice for the hungry villagers: two grains on the first square of a chessboard, four on the second, and so on, doubling the amount for each subsequent square. Although the amount seems insignificant at first, it grows at an alarming rate, since doubling has little effect on small numbers, but an increasingly enormous effect as the numbers grow larger. The raja's storehouse is soon empty, and he must admit that he cannot fill her seemingly modest request. Similar in its premise and plot to Birch's King's Chessboard (1988) and Pittman's Grain of Rice (1986), this picture book is somewhat more involved and wordier. However, Barry makes the mathematical process very clear through the story and an appended, illustrated note. Varied in composition, the richly colored illustrations are effective, though rather static in portraying people. Recommended for larger collections. Carolyn Phelan