In the chapter book, " Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail" a math eduction crisis has arose in this country continues to make the headlines to prove that in the middle ages is when math grades drop for young girls. In a large social conditioning, girls are told they can't do math and that math is told to be uncool. Young girls need to have a strong female role model to help embrace the idea that is it okay to be a smart cookie.Danica McKellar, the author, steps in as the role model, and begins to demonstrate on a larger scale that math doesn't suck. When introducing this chapter book to the class, they can soon begin to learn that math is enjoyable along with having step-by-step instruction, real-life examples and even engaging stories of Danica's own personal math struggles. ( )

My daughter, Lennon, and I have added this book to our summer activities. She is not enthused with the prospect but I do not want her forgetting all she learned in the fourth grade over the summer break.

The author, Danica McKellar, was interviewed on a NPR program recently and she so sold me on her book. ( )

I come from a self-help background. (The book I read before this was “Life Doesn’t Suck: How To Survive Your Job Without Losing Your Mind Or Becoming Psychotic”.) I find that if you can do affirmations, you can do pre-algebra. Maybe affirmations are preparatory-pre-algebra.

Anyway, the little fun quotes from random smart girls— philosophy of math— was great, as was the “Are you a math-o-phobe” quiz by an actual psych girl.

It’s a good book.

I have a confession to make, I'm someone who considers herself to be "allergic to math". I gravitated towards subjects like English and History and far, far, far away from Mathematics. So my recommendation for this book is coming out my desire to alleviate my own math anxiety. Danica McKellar was an actress who appeared on the TV Show the Wonder Years and has a degree in Mathematics from UCLA. She writes about her own early struggles with math and how she came about writing this book. Middle school is usually about the age where girls start to lose interest in math either from frustration or are they discouraged by outside influences, so McKeller tries to break down math concepts like fractions, percentages and word problems into easier-to-understand problems.

This sounds like a hard book for educators to implement in their curriculum since it leans heavily to one subject. Nevertheless, I still think it's a good book for young readers. McKeller writes in her introduction that math can sharpen your brain and all around enhance your intellect. There always seems to be a fight between what kind of intelligence matters most and if subjects like math and science are more important that subjects like English. Teachers and educators could use this as a moment to discuss the importance of both and one can enhance the other. ( )

Danica is very good at explaining everything in the book and giving hints on how to remember things. She also helps girls with their confidence, especially at doing math and social problems. ( )