Math Curse by Jon Scieszka

Reader's Response: This was a book my 10th grade geometry teacher read to my class. I thought it was silly that she would read a picture book to a bunch of 10 graders, but as an avid reader and lover of math, I fell in love with this book. This book illustrates the relevance of math, even abstract math, in the real world. I connected with the narrator immediately because I was not always a lover of math. I used to dread math class much like the narrator. I feel like the narrator is easy to relate too. I also enjoyed the illustrations. The illustrations helped me understand the math concepts that the author was alluding to. Overall, I enjoyed this book. I think I appreciate it more now than I did as a 10th grader. It captures the essences of mathematics in every day life while having a humorous tone to keep the reader entertained.

Evaluator's Response: What I appreciated about this book is that it addresses the issue of "math phobia" or apathetic attitudes towards math. Many students fear that they are not a "math student" or math is irrelevant in the world. This book constantly highlights how math is literally everywhere, and even someone who struggles with math can over come the struggle. I appreciated the positive ending of the book where the curse is broken by solving a problem. I loved the minute details of how waking up and getting ready for school becomes a math problem or how asking for a slice of pizza is a math problem. These are all such easily relatable examples of math in the real-world. One weakness was that it was not exactly culturally responsive in regards to race or ethnicity. However, another strength was that it touched on the relevance of math in other disciplines such as history, physical education, art, and even English -- very integrated.
 
Teacher's Response: If a student truly enjoyed this book, I would recommend reading The Stinky Cheese Man and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. Both these books are also by Jon Scieszka. The Stinky Cheese Man is a cute spin on all our fairy tale classics like Jack and Beanstalk and Little Red Riding-hood. The True Story of the Three Little Pigs is also a cute spin on the original Three Little Pigs fairy tale. I think both books could be used to teach the importance of perspective in narrative writing or even historical texts.  The Number Devil is another great math story book about a boy named Robert who suffers from math anxiety which is very common among so many of our students.

Literacy Coach's Response: As a literacy coach and math teacher, I strongly recommend that math teachers use this book to set up the norm, attitude, and culture toward mathematics in the classroom. This book can establish that math is relevant and very much needed for survival. I think a deep discussion of this book's literary elements as well as the math concepts could serve as a way to get students invested in the math class and serve as an informal pre-assessment to see how many math problems the students can solve out of this story and how many concepts they pick up on. I would read the story once and go over main idea, plot, theme, tone, and author's purpose. Then, I would allow the students to work in groups to go through this book and solve as many of the problems as possible -- maybe even make it into a fun scavenger hunt!