One Mathematical Cat, Please! A First Course in Algebra

My First Course in Algebra offers over 175 in-a-nutshell lessons, together with free unlimited practice and worksheets.

But do you want even more detailed instruction and more exercises? You've come to the right place!

There's a complete text ‘lurking behind’ the online lessons. It's a more conventional text—sort of like a book you'd use in school. (Well... actually... it isn't ‘conventional’ at all...)

I call it the ‘Cat-in-Hammock’ book because of the print-version cover (look up)!

Read the ‘Cat-in-Hammock’ Book for Free Online

• Go to the Table of Contents for my Algebra I course. Scroll down a bit, and look at the links in the first column of the table.
• Successively click on:
  Read Section 1
  Read Section 2
  $\vdots$
  Read Section 37
• That's the whole book!

Buy the Print Version of the ‘Cat-in-Hammock’ Book at Amazon

The print version is for those of us who like to highlight, write in margins, feel the paper between our fingers. Most importantly, it has ‘active reading’ exercises every few paragraphs, so you check your understanding in tiny steps. (Of course, all solutions are included!) There's also a supplement for extra sections that aren't in the main text.

The Cat-in-Hammock book isn't ‘just another algebra book’, since an entire website supports and extends it. After completing Algebra I, you can continue with Geometry, Algebra II, Precalculus, Calculus. All building on the ideas you learned in Algebra I with the same voice, same style, same notation, same language.

The printed book and website can each stand alone as a learning environment, but they work best together.

About the Cat-in-Hammock Book

While you're learning algebra, you'll also learn that numbers have lots of different names, and that math is the renaming tool. You'll learn that ‘$\,x\,$’ is to math as ‘cat’ is to English (hence the name ‘One Mathematical Cat, Please!)

The ‘active reading’ exercises check that learners are ‘getting it’. Take a look at exercises 1–11 in this sample section (answers at the end). It is the author's intention that every reader do every exercise. They're quick-and-easy, but cause you to ‘take pause’ and digest new information.

Reviewers and users write:

• “... wonderfully written and crafted with a care you rarely see”
• “... will do a great service to the mathematical educational world”
• “... the need for this book is immense”
• “... I found meat, potatoes, and pie on every page. It's all dessert.”
• “... never seen anything so supportive and affirming and reassuring and inspiring as the way you talk us through topics”
• “THIS IS GREAT!!!! . . . this is helping me get heads above the competition. You rock!!!! One Mathematical Cat drives me wild.”

Here's a review of the Cat-on-Swing book (which is embedded in the Cat-in-Hammock book). Cat-on-Swing has math language ideas. Cat-in-Hammock is Algebra + math language.

Here are some testimonials from over the years.

Added Benefits

• Stress-Free Homework and Quizzes
  If teachers use the online randomly-generated worksheets for quizzes/homework, then student stress levels are greatly diminished. Students can click-click-click to be confident they're prepared.
• Algebra Pinball
  Teachers can use Algebra Pinball to reward students for mastering basic skills.

Questions?

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me (Dr. Carol JVF Burns, author and website creator):

Table of Contents for the Cat-in-Hammock Book