24

I remember reading a book when I was a kid (age 7-9) about squirrels (or maybe other small animals) that were using the octal numeral system.

Counting to 7 (since 8 = 0) was a whole new magical world that opened for me back then, until I found out a bit later that this numeral system existed for real.

A quick search on the internet gave me nothing, but maybe you can help?

Improve this question
19
  • 2
    I vaguely remember something like this, and although I would have sworn they were badgers, I haven't had any more luck tracking it down than you have.
    – TML
    Aug 12, 2011 at 9:59
  • 2
    You can see my age on my profile ;) And no, it was just a regular story about a group of animals (no cats sorry), living their life with their own mathematical (octal) system.
    – Bart
    Aug 13, 2011 at 15:29
  • 4
    I'm so curious about this story. BOUNTY'D.
    – hairboat
    Aug 24, 2011 at 19:55
  • 2
    I don't remember illustrations, but it's been a long time. If it had them, they were a minimal part of the book I'm thinking of - it certainly wasn't "Dr. Seuss in the Magical Land of the Octal-counting Badgers."
    – TML
    Aug 24, 2011 at 23:22
  • 3
    Someone has posted this query on Stump - A456: Anthropomorphic rodents (perhaps squirrels or badgers) who use a base 8 (0-7, or "octal") counting system
    – JoseK
    Sep 2, 2011 at 13:00

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
22

The question has been up on stump - A456 for over a month and got a new reply:

Tod, Michael, The Woodstock Saga, 1990s, approximate. The Woodstock Saga, also known as the Dorset Squirrels, is a series of three novels about a society of squirrels (the titles are The Silver Tide, The Second Wave and The Golden Flight). In the first book, the heroine squirrel develops a Base 8 system of counting inspired by the number of toes she has on her front paws. I hope this helps! :)

  • The name Michael Tod sounds familiar to me, so that's a +1.
  • It's about squirrels: +1
  • They have a Base 8 system: +1

Quite convinced that this is what we were looking for :)

These are the books:

Think I've read the 2nd one long ago, as soon as I'm back in the country, I'm gonna try and find all 3. Thanks a lot to the person that posted it on stump.

Improve this answer
3
  • 1
    +1 It's great that this question is finally answered! :)
    – Daniel
    Oct 13, 2011 at 23:36
  • 2
    Yeah, I remembered enjoying this book enough that I thought it would be well worth the $2 if that service could identify it for me, so I posted it to them the day after @Anna Lear's bounty expired; looks like it was a good decision! This is definitely the series I was thinking of (and kudos to Bart for getting the right kind of rodent the first time around!) I even remember the grey squirrels being the antagonists now.
    – TML
    Oct 14, 2011 at 4:03
  • @TML thanks a lot ! And yeah, the grey squirrels ... so gonna buy the series when I get home again.
    – Bart
    Oct 14, 2011 at 13:06

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.