Kodomo Comics brings together manga and math to bring readers a fun and educational adventure called Mathland.
Comics, manga in general, have seen incredible growth in recent years, especially among the younger crowd. It has gone from being a leftover and strange thing to entertainment for thousands of young people, turning the Japanese comic industry into a medium giant and making it mainstream. This acceptance of manga has allowed it to be seen as an increasingly important tool in education. Teachers and students need to find more ways to improve learning and young students show interest in scientific branches like mathematics.
Pedro A. Martinez, who saw the potential of comics in teaching, has a degree in technical sciences and statistics, as well as a doctorate in applied mathematics. He is currently a high school and high school teacher, and years ago he saw the great potential of social networks to introduce mathematics to young people. In social networks such as X (Twitter) or Instagram, you should use math, geometry, reasoning, or decipher patterns where to get Martinez puzzles, puzzles. Many students who hated the course were able to understand math concepts, and even enjoy the lessons thanks to this teacher who knows how to approach young children.
Through it all, the Maths4Everything website emerged, which shares teaching resources to promote learning in numeracy. All his works have been awarded with all kinds of awards. From all this came the Maitland Project, where two of this teacher’s greatest passions come together: manga, mathematics and manga. He had a great artist like Sonya Muller for this project. In the year A finalist in the Clip Studio International Comic Schools Competition in 2022, this cartoonist has accumulated notable achievements throughout her career, thanks to her short story The Stone. Below is our review of Mathland: The Math Puzzle.
Welcome to the world of mathematics
The protagonist of the story is Alan (for Alan Turing, mathematician and father of computer science), a young man who is not good at math and doesn’t fully understand it. He thinks they are useless and this thinking has gotten him into more than one problem in the room. One day when he is expelled from class, he encounters a strange creature who transports him to a magical world called Maitland. This magical world revolves around mathematics, so all the magic, the environment and the characters (except Alan) will be related to this science.
During the adventure the characters will have all kinds of challenges involving concepts like equality and oddity, powers and roots, coordinates on the plane, sequences and Fibonacci succession or logical thinking. I surprised myself by understanding some concepts that I just knew by heart.
Pedro A. Martinez makes his debut as a comics writer. Introducing math into a story, making it a central axis, and making it work organically is no easy task, but he does it well. Martinez is a huge fan of manga and obviously has a good background in reading. Obviously we are not dealing with the best written story in history, the script is not complex, but it has some surprises. The function of this manga is clear, it does everything right to entertain and educate the little ones, teaching them what mathematics is and how it is used in the world.
Although the manga is aimed at young people, reading it can be very interesting for teachers as well. Mathland can be useful for finding alternatives in the teaching process, far away from the traditional method (not a little old). Reading this volume is useful for finding options and teaching in a way that stimulates the attention of students, something important and difficult at this time. In this comic you can see that teaching math with puzzles and jigsaw puzzles can be a lot of fun.
Sonya Muller, the person responsible for bringing Maitland to life in vignette form, has done a great job creating a picture that is reminiscent of a very childish anime manga style, as her work is aimed at a sixth or first grade audience. Year of ESO. A very beautiful picture and the characters are very original, different and very friendly with their own designs. The action scenes are entertaining and well drawn.
Maitland Edition: The Riddle of the Arithmetic Talisman by Kodomo Comics
ECC Ediciones, through its Kodomo Comics label, brings us a fine edition of Martinez and Muller’s manga. Soft cover dust jacket containing 160 black and white pages. Although the comic is classified as manga, it is read from left to right, perhaps to encourage reading for those unfamiliar with this type of comic, such as many veteran teachers. The best thing that the edition offers is that before each chapter we show in detail the design of the characters, and the description and meaning is inspired by the world of mathematics.
Maitland: The Riddle of the Mathematician proved to be a very entertaining and very instructive read. A very interesting story is told when you can teach, understand and integrate math concepts through a medium like manga. Pedro A. Martínez made a great debut as a screenwriter because creating a fictional story and applying mathematical concepts is not easy. The writer, of course, had an invincible partner in Sonia Müller, who does a fantastic job. Very first world, as well as unique character designs. The action scenes are well done and the whole set is very beautiful.
Maitland: The Riddle of the Mathematician is a very interesting joke for the educational environment. It can be a great way to show interest in one of the topics that the younger generation tends to get the most disdain from. With a popular medium like manga and a beautiful story and picture, you can learn about science and show that many kids aren’t bad at math, just because they don’t fully understand it. Teaching them is not the best way. You have it for sale for €17.95.
Maitland: The Riddle of the Arithmetic Talisman
Authors: Pedro A. Martinez | Sonya Muller
Publisher: ECC Ediciones | Kodomo
Format: Softcover with dust jacket
Dimensions: 14.8 x 20.8 cm
Pages: 160 black and white
ISBN: 978-84-19972-44-6
Price: 17,95 €
Summary: Immerse yourself in the wonderful world of Maitland and solve math challenges!
Alan hates math. After being kicked out of class one morning, he hid in a forgotten warehouse in the facility. Out of the darkness emerges a strange man who transports him to a strange and magical world called Maitland. There he finds Zero and all the smaller units being hunted by Queen Interialia. Fortunately, there is a powerful genius who can bring Alan back to the real world and stop the Queen’s dark agenda, but achieving this will not be easy.
Will Alan and his new friends be able to defeat the villains?