From Barnes & Noble
Arrgh! Does tunafish plus tunafish equal fourfish? A girl finds herself trapped in a math curse when her teacher tells the class they can think of almost anything as a math problem. Soon she sees math everywhere. Scieszka and Smith join forces again to create another lunatic masterpiece, and adults will writhe in sympathy as they remember their own math curses.
From the Publisher
"As close to genius as one gets in a picture book."--USA Today
* An ABBY Honor Book
* ALA Notable Book
* ALA Best Books for Young Adults
* The Horn Book Fanfare
* Texas Bluebonnet Award
* Publishers Weekly Best Books of 1995
* School Library Journal Best Books of 1995
* Booklist: Editors' Choice Award
Publishers Weekly
Whew! This latest whimsical work from Scieszka and Smith (The True Story of the Three Little Pigs; The Stinky Cheese Man) is bound to stretch out the old thinking cap. The day after her teacher announces, "You know, you can think of almost everything as a math problem," the narrator is afflicted with a ``math curse'' that affects how she views every facet of her day (``Everything seems to be a problem''). A minimum of the questions she asks herself are entirely logical ("How many quarts are in a gallon?''); some are far-fetched extrapolations (if an M&M is about one centimeter long and the Mississippi River is about 4000 kilometers long, how many M&Ms would it take to measure the length of this river?); and a happily hefty number are sheer nonsense: "I undo 8 buttons plus 2 shoelaces. I subtract 2 shoes. I multiply times 2 socks and divide by 3 pillows to get 5 sheep, remainder 1, which is all I need to count before I fall asleep." Like the text, Smith's wonderfully wacky collage-like art will give readers ample food for thought-even if it's part junk food. Here's a morsel: "Does tunafish + tunafish = fournafish?" Kids will want seconds-count on it. Ages 7-up. (Oct.)
Children's Literature
The two bad boys of "kiddie lit" have done it again! Their irreverent look at math and the way we teach it in school will delight anyone who has ever sat through a meaningless explanation of what happens when the two infamous story-problem trains speed away from their respective stations. Readers who appreciate a first class marriage of text, illustration, sense, and nonsense will love this book.
Children's Literature
Sorry, Mrs. Fibonacci, but when you labeled everything a math problem, my mind couldn't cope. I loved arithmetic but word problems drove me crazy. If I wanted to know how long it takes a train to go from one place to another, I'd get a train schedule. Scieszka, a former math teacher, takes numerical enigmas and rejiggers them in this mind-boggling, hysterically funny book. The combination of art and text is a hoot. There is some legitimate math within the nonsense, but most of it is just plain fun. Read it aloud at your next faculty meeting in a deadpan, serious style. If no one laughs, fire them! Assignment: What is the significance of Mrs. Fibonacci's name?
Children's Literature
The duo who dare to be different take us into the world of numbers in this book. They combine math and literature and get the story of a young heroine whose questions multiply when her teacher, Mrs. Fibonacci, tells the math class, "You know, you can think of almost everything as a math problem." The young girl is spun into the world of mathematics. Problems she encounters include simple arithmetic processes, mathematical systems, money, measuring, and geometry. The mathematical facet of the book is equaled by playful references and humor, which gains the book exponential power. One could read Math Curse with a child as young as second grade and that child would enjoy the story at face value, but upper elementary and middle school mathematicians will better appreciate the humor and references.
School Library Journal
Gr 3-5-From the inventive minds of Scieszka and Smith comes an unusual take on the subject of mathematics. More for the ``Time Warp Trio'' audience than for Stinky Cheese Man (1992, both Viking) devotees, Math Curse opens with the ominously simple statement, ``You know, you can think of almost everything as a math problem.'' From that point on, the young narrator is overwhelmed with daily math. Getting dressed, eating breakfast, getting to school-everything involves addition, subtraction, measurement, probability, etc. Questions are boxed and numbered within the narrative, just as they might appear in a textbook. The questions, however, are not always typical workbook queries. For example, ``I take the milk out for my cereal and wonder: 1.How many quarts in a gallon? 2.How many pints in a quart? 3.How many inches in a foot? 4.How many feet in a yard? 5.How many yards in a neighborhood? How many inches in a pint? How many feet in my shoes?'' Some of the humor may have to be explained to readers. Kids will be able to figure out most of the problems on their own, depending on their grasp of fractions. Smith's illustrations are wild and rollicking. Combining drawings with collage, he creates a multi-textured school scene that reflects the narrator's confusion. Numbers are everywhere, but so are whimsical touches such as the individual expressions on the 24 cherries that adorn the class's cupcakes. This title can certainly be used as lighthearted relief in math class, but the story will be heartily enjoyed simply for its zany humor and nonstop sense of fun.-Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, VA
School Library Journal
Spice up your classes with books by Greg Tang, an author who encourages kids to take a playful approach to math. Each book has complete explanations for the problems posed. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
School Library Journal
Gr 1–4—Do Lane Smith and Jon Scieszka make a whacky team? Do four quarts equal a gallon? Do 12 inches equal a foot? Yes, yes, and yes! Their wild and crazy homage to the story problem (Viking, 1995) is well-treated here. A young girl's math teacher, Mrs. Fibonacci, tells the class that you can think of almost everything as a math problem. Thus the week begins and soon every aspect of the youngsters' lives is dominated by the story problems that gave us all nightmares at one time or another. Measurement, fractions, probability…it's all here. Things start simply but degenerate in a surreal manner nicely reflected in Lane Smith's imaginative, bizarre, eye-catching illustrations that combine drawings with collage. They are scanned iconographically as well as animated for maximum effect while Nancy Wu's high-energy narration bounces from problem to problem. Original music enhances the text. The DVD includes a humorous interview with both Smith and Scieszka lobbing comments back and forth like a high-speed tennis match. Viewers may choose to watch the story with or without read-along subtitles. The CD includes Wu's narration and the original music, as well as a track for the "Math Curse" song. This is a zany presentation that pokes gentle fun at math, while pointing out how much it impacts our daily lives.—Teresa Bateman, Brigadoon Elementary School, Federal Way, WA
BookList
Children will know what they're in for when they read Scieszka's dedication: "If the sum of my nieces and nephews equals 15, and their product equals 54, and I have more nephews than nieces, HOW MANY NEPHEWS AND HOW MANY NIECES IS THIS BOOK DEDICATED TO?" But unlike in their classrooms, readers are in control here: they can decide whether or not to calculate the solution. In the story, a girl wakes up one morning to find everything in life arranging itself into a math problem. Throughout the school day, each minor event inspires her to create new sets of math problems, which quickly develop from the merely arithmetical to the moderately puzzling to the truly wacky. Other kids in math-across-the-curriculum classes may sympathize when the teacher asks how to divide Rebecca's 24 cupcakes among 25 people: "I'm the first to figure out the answer. / I raise my hand and tell Mrs. Fibonacci / I'm allergic to cupcakes." She decides that her teacher has put a math curse on her, but in her dreams that night, she finds a way out of her mathematical mindset. Bold in design and often bizarre in expression, Smith's paintings clearly express the child's feelings of bemusement, frustration, and panic as well as her eventual joy when she overcomes the math curse. Scieszka and Smith triumph, too, at the top of their class as artists and entertainers, their distinctive voice and original vision creating a child-centered, witty picture book about the woes of math anxiety.
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