As soon as I received a copy of this book, my mind thought how this would be such a great introduction to a unit on graphs.
Then, I read it.
It is not a bad book, it is just a whole lot more biography than math. The graphs are not even mentioned until the last few pages and it goes into little detail about them. (When compared to all the details on William Playfair's life up to that point.)
So go into this with the knowledge that this is better suited for a biography unit than an introduction to graphs.
I received a digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is an innovative, playful approach to math. We need more picture books like this for elementary classrooms, books that will encourage a playful approach to learning and teaching math. Kids learn all about the geometric properties of lines, bars and circles in this book.

As a teacher, I love books like this that make subjects like history and math approachable and memorable for students! My students would enjoy this book!

This book is a great introduction to line graphs, bar graphs, and pie charts. It also provides nice snippets of history relating to William Playfair's life and endeavors. Fun illustrations, fun story, and easy to read.

A picture book biography of the little-known Scottish man of the late 1700s who invented line graphs, bar graphs, and pie charts.

If you’ve never heard of William Playfair, don’t feel bad. He’s not well known. Even during his own time he was more likely to have been known for his numerous failed business ventures and schemes than for inventing these charts we now consider everyday items. But someone had to come up with the idea first, and he just happened to be the man. It makes you wonder who today will be the inventor none of us recognize but 100 years from now will have a daily impact on how information is presented? Despite the man’s lack of business smarts, inability to hold a job, and possibly shady dealings (there’s more info on him and his charts in the back of the book), this is still a good book for math classes and will arm readers with some interesting math/science/infographics history tidbits to wow friends and relatives. I bet you they won’t believe just one man invented all three of these graphs or that you know his name.

Refreshing book about how Playfair invented the use of graphical representation. What was particularly interesting was how he struggled and made a mess of his personal life - a very good thing for students to see that scientists and inventors are fallible people with their own weaknesses.

William Playfair was a dreamer. He lived during the time of The Industrial Revolution and The French Revolution, a time when scientists and inventors believed in numbers and formulas to create breakthroughs like the steamboat and steam-powered locomotive. Scientists used The Scientific Method, testing hypotheses with experimentation. Will found all jobs he held to be very confining. He dreamed bigger!

Will decided to write books on subjects fascinating to him. He found that he could present information visually. By turning data into pictures, he thought the information would become easier to remember. The scientific community did not embrace his infographics for one hundred years.

Author Helaine Becker and illustrator Marie-Eva Tremblay have created a factual, at times humorous, tome about William Playfair, the inventor of the line graph, bar graph and the pie chart. Biographical end notes on Playfair are an excellent addition providing a "snapshot" of a little known mathematician and inventor. "Lines, Bars and Circles: How William Playfair Invented Graphs" by Helaine Becker would be a welcome addition to any school or home library.

Thank you Kids Can Press and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "Lines,Bars and Circles".

To be honest, when I began reading this I did not know who invented line and bar graphs and bar charts. From this book I learnt that it was a dreamer and joker who saw the world differently from everyone else whose ideas were scorned in his century, his name was William Playfair.

Williams story is interesting and takes a look at someone in history that may not otherwise be learnt about. Charts and graphs are so much a part of our scientific life that is is valuable to know the story behind who originally came up with the ideas.

Overall I found it an interesting read and can see this being used as a learning tool in the classroom and a school library.

Super interesting non fiction picture book about William Playfair and his inventions, which happen to be line graphs, bar graphs, and pie chart. In a very clear way the book presents William from his early years, his ambitions and many failures, and how he one day thought about representing numerical information in pictures, to make it easier to understand. Unfortunately William's charts weren't successful at the time, in part also because of the bad reputation he built for himself, and it took one hundred years to rediscovered his "charts". Now we see them everywhere.
The book also presents some information in little boxes about contemporary historical events that influenced William's life, inventions, and luck.
I think this is a great book by a great author (I also loved Monster Science), with funny illustrations (I also loved Inside your insides illustrations). My daughter enjoyed it, and I plan to buy a copy for us and another one for her classroom.