AoPS

Beast Academy Books

Recommended Ages

2nd–8th grades (ages 6–13)

Beast Academy Books are the comic-style print companions to the Beast Academy math program, aimed at roughly grades 2–5 and written by the Art of Problem Solving team. Each guide reads like a graphic novel in which monster students tackle challenging math ideas, while matching practice books offer carefully sequenced problems and puzzles. Parents love that the books invite kids to linger on big ideas—like number theory and geometry—rather than rushing through a checklist of standards, making them especially appealing to advanced or puzzle-loving learners. They can be intense for kids who prefer straightforward drills, but as reusable resources that can serve multiple children, the books offer outstanding depth for the cost.

Best for kids in roughly grades 2–5 who are strong readers, enjoy comics and puzzles, and like being stretched mathematically; especially popular with gifted or math-leaning children and families who enjoy sitting down together to chew on interesting problems.

Pros

Comic-book-style guides plus challenging practice books that together form a complete, concept-rich math curriculum for roughly grades 2–5; families and reviewers love the engaging characters, emphasis on problem solving, and the way core ideas like geometry and number theory are woven in from early on. 

Cons

As with the online version, the books are significantly more challenging than standard curricula and can be frustrating for some kids; they require a teaching parent to read, discuss, and sometimes work problems together, and many families feel the need to add extra fact practice or simpler review problems. 

Because they are secular print books, Beast Academy volumes are often eligible for charter or ESA purchasing when bought through approved vendors or the publisher, though policies and approved levels differ by program. Families typically submit ISBNs for pre-approval.

$30-120 per book

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Beast Academy Books
$4.00 USD

Skills

What kids will learn
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Math
Math

Beast Academy Books Mission

Beast Academy Books are designed to give elementary students a deep, challenge‑rich math education wrapped in a graphic‑novel format kids actually want to read. The mission is to take the problem‑solving focus of Art of Problem Solving’s middle‑ and high‑school materials and bring it down to roughly grades 1–5, using monsters, stories, and puzzles to build real conceptual understanding. By combining carefully sequenced explanations with non‑routine problems, the series helps kids develop persistence, creativity, and a flexible toolkit for tackling unfamiliar math.

Beast Academy Books Story

After years of success with Art of Problem Solving books for older students, founder Richard Rusczyk and his team kept hearing the same request from parents: “Can you make something like this for my younger child?” They responded by spending several years designing Beast Academy, starting with a cast of quirky monster characters and a comic‑book world where math is woven into every adventure. The first Guide and Practice books launched in the early 2010s and quickly developed a devoted following among families of math‑loving and gifted kids. Since then Beast Academy Books have expanded across multiple grade levels and are now used both as a complete curriculum and as a challenge supplement in classrooms and homeschools.

About Modular Learning

FAQ: Additional Details about Beast Academy Books

A Beast Academy day often starts with you and your child snuggled up with a Guide book, following the adventures of monster students and their teachers as they grapple with math concepts in story form. After reading, you shift to the Practice book at the table, where your child tackles everything from straightforward exercises to challenging puzzles, sometimes working silently and sometimes thinking aloud as they draw diagrams and test ideas.

Beast Academy Books are the print component of the Beast Academy curriculum, consisting of full-color Guide books in comic format and matching Practice books with problems and puzzles for levels 2–5 (roughly grades 2–5). Families typically read the Guides together (or assign them to strong readers) and then work through the Practice pages as their main math lessons, often supplementing with manipulatives or games.

Adult involvement can range from high (reading every Guide section aloud, co-solving Practice problems, and discussing strategies) to moderate (having a child read independently, then checking work and debriefing challenging questions). Even independent learners usually benefit from a parent who is available as a sounding board.

Students should be solidly comfortable with the math and reading expectations for the chosen level; placement guides help families choose the best starting book rather than defaulting to grade level. Kids with limited handwriting stamina can do work on a whiteboard or orally while a parent records answers.

Beast Academy Books are designed for advanced and math‑hungry kids; the comic‑style explanations plus challenging problems are especially beloved by gifted and 2e learners. The leaps in difficulty and dense reasoning can overwhelm some kids with dyscalculia or math anxiety, so many families slow the pace, add manipulatives, or pair with a gentler spine for practice.

Part of the wider Beast Academy program, these comic-style books use highly visual, puzzle-based explanations that Modulo has found especially engaging for many kids on the spectrum who enjoy patterns, logic, and working at their own pace. They also serve as a lower-stimulation, non-screen alternative for children who like Beast Academy’s approach but prefer print materials.

Beast Academy is wonderful for mathy, puzzle-loving kids but it’s not my first-line choice for remediating dyscalculia. The comic-style explanations and visual models can be motivating, yet the pace is fast and the problems assume fairly solid number sense and fact fluency. For a child with dyscalculia I would only use the books as an enrichment layer after they have a more concrete, multi-sensory program in place, and I’d be prepared to slow the pace way down and scribe as needed.

Often an excellent fit for 2e math kids who are conceptually advanced and love puzzles. Short, challenging problems and comics-style explanations let you go deep while still working at a flexible pace; just be ready to slow down, skip around, and offer emotional support if perfectionism or frustration spike.

Part of the wider Beast Academy program, these comic-style books use highly visual, puzzle-based explanations that Modulo has found especially engaging for many kids on the spectrum who enjoy patterns, logic, and working at their own pace. They also serve as a lower-stimulation, non-screen alternative for children who like Beast Academy’s approach but prefer print materials.

Beast Academy is wonderful for mathy, puzzle-loving kids but it’s not my first-line choice for remediating dyscalculia. The comic-style explanations and visual models can be motivating, yet the pace is fast and the problems assume fairly solid number sense and fact fluency. For a child with dyscalculia I would only use the books as an enrichment layer after they have a more concrete, multi-sensory program in place, and I’d be prepared to slow the pace way down and scribe as needed.

Refunds for Beast Academy books follow the seller’s policy: major online retailers usually accept returns of unused books within a specified window, while heavily used or written-in books are not returnable. Digital editions, where available, are generally non-refundable.

Not ideal for kids who are already behind in basic arithmetic, children who get easily discouraged by challenging puzzles, or families who need a very scripted, teacher-light workbook program.

Singapore Math, Math Mammoth, or Primary Mathematics combined with logic puzzle books are common alternatives; some families also use Beast Academy Books as a supplement alongside a more straightforward main curriculum.

As the Beast Academy line grows, new printings sometimes incorporate minor corrections, and new levels (including early-level materials) continue to be developed. Families can pair the books with Beast Academy Online or Beast Academy Playground for extra practice and variety.

Read the guide comics aloud like storybooks, work just a handful of problems at a time, and let your child explain their reasoning on a whiteboard instead of insisting on writing out every step in the practice book.

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Meet Richard

Richard Rusczyk is the founder of Art of Problem Solving and the lead creator behind the Beast Academy book series. A former math contest champion and USA Mathematical Olympiad qualifier, he has spent his career building resources and communities for students who enjoy hard problems. With Beast Academy he set out to show that even very young children can tackle serious mathematics when it’s presented through engaging stories and thoughtful puzzles. A fun fact: many of the monster characters in Beast Academy began as rough sketches on napkins and whiteboards during brainstorming sessions with his team of writers, artists, and mathematicians.