Do the Math: Secrets, Lies, and Algebra

Lichtman, Wendy. Do the Math: Secrets, Lies, and Algebra. Greenwillow Books, 2007, 183p., $17.89 978-0-06-122956-5
Tess has always loved math, and she uses mathematical concepts to help her understand things in her life, so she is dismayed to find out how much math--and life--can change in eighth grade.

Students who are “Math challenged” will have a clearer understanding of math concepts after reading how Tess applies those concepts to events taking place in her life. Middle schooler Tess is faced with a cheating classmate, a suspicious death of a friend of her mother’s and a gossiping friend. Using graphs, math operations and symbols, Tess graphs the situations and tries to look at them objectively. However, as she soon discovers, some math problems, as in real life, have solutions that are d.n.e. (do not exist). Tess tells the story, and as a narrator, she is interesting but she does not possess much depth, nor do the other characters. This isn’t a critical drawback; the intersection of math and real life picks up where character and plot development fall short. Readers will be entertained and drawn into Tess’s problems and the lessons she learns about honesty and friendship. Language Arts and Math teachers can use Lichtman’s device as extensions to Math lessons. RZ