Reader's Response: As I was reading this book, I thought it was absolutely more of a reference text than a "sit down and read for fun" text. However, the book illustrations were funny and engaging and, for the most part, depicted things I could have related to as a middle or high school student. I also really liked it because it was easy to approach. The book, while thick, is a quick read because of the number pictures. (As I was going through, I thought of it as an "adult picture book.") Overall, I thought it was full of good information, and I never felt like I was reading a dry, boring book about statistics.
Evaluator's Response: It is a great reference book because there were some simple explanations of complicated and messy statistics principles. That being said, I will say that I felt like it could have been more useful if it was supplemented with a more robust text, such as a textbook. It glossed over some heavy topics, and left me to Google why something was so because I either did not know or couldn't remember. This is also great for students because there is a robust glossary in the back. If they have specific questions, they can easily find the topic they need a little more help with and quickly flip to the page they need. Finally, this has fun graphics to show during lessons, and it can serve as a first stop for picking out relevant examples of statistics in action for class discussion. One weakness may be that it is unlike many of the texts the students will be exposed to in other classes, and may not help students make cross-curricular connections about how to read texts.
Teacher's Response: If a student enjoyed reading or referencing this book, I would recommend "The Manga Guide to Statistics." This book follows more of a story line about a girl learning statistics and is illustrated with the popular Japanese comic style manga. It illustrates statistics through more of a fictional lens, while still keeping the comic style used in this book. I would also recommend "The Cartoon Introduction to Statistics." It is much like this guide, but it has more of an explanation element. It may be more accessible for students who have less understanding of certain concepts.
Literacy Coach's Response: As a literacy coach, I would encourage teachers to have students do one of two things. The first would be for students to choose a statistics concept that has been recently discussed in the classroom and have students create their own word problem using that concept. From there, teachers would ask students to create their own cartoon guide (using both words and illustrations) to solve the problem.
Another idea would be to have students choose one of their favorite comics in the book and have them "complete the story." Basically, I would ask teachers to explain to students that this is the first comic in a series of comics and that they must complete the story (again) using words and illustrations. To be sure that the math element is incorporated enough, teachers could require students to reference two-three more uses of statistics before the end of their story (comic strip).
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