Customer Reviews

Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail

5 star:		(118)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

When I was seven, my mother got a Mathematics degree. At 29, I got my own Mathematics degree -- and of 60 people that day who got Math bachelor degrees then and there with me, only three were women. My mother proved, and those three co-graduating women proved, and Danica proves now, that women can learn math. But that's not what junior-high and high school girls think, is it? Most teen girls think they're math-morons.

Danica has written this book for such math-panicked teen girls -- Danica has written this book not only to TEACH them, but to ENCOURAGE them: "You can learn this!"

The math covered in Danica's book is junior-high level -- Danica presumes that the reader already knows how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide; then Danica takes the reader up through Algebra I. Danica's math is solid; and Danica's explanations, easy to understand.

But this is not your brother's math book. If you flipped through the book quickly, not reading the text, the illustrations and all the girly-handwriting would make you think that it was a book about teen fashion. The book also has chapter headings like no other math book I've seen -- Chapter 7, for instance, is entitled, "Is Your Sister Trying to Cheat You Out of Your Fair Share? (Comparing Fractions)." Chapter 9, on complex fractions, starts out, "Say you're trying on an outfit for a party. You've got the dress, the shoes, and the earrings -- and now you're choosing the right necklace...."

Danica also includes three "testimonials" (profiles) of young women who are successful in their careers because they've mastered math. Rather than show three "Ugly Betties" or nerdettes, the three women profiled are BABES.

To me, the most amazing thing about her book is that she tells the "blank quiz" story about herself: In a seventh-grade math class, "[w]hen the bell rang and my quiz was still blank, I wanted to disappear into my chair. I just didn't want to EXIST."

When I read this book, I learned something. Not about math, but about people. Junior-high girls, in particular. I give this book a 4.99999999999999999...-star rating.

What will this book teach your daughter? That she can work out math problems by herself. That she can learn to love math, and even excel at it. And that she can do these things while still being every bit as girlie as she wants to be. Makeup and math? Yes, this book says, you can love them both.

Will girls read it? I think so, because, unlike so many academic texts, "Math Doesn't Suck" is so much more than a study guide. Author McKellar -- yes, Winnie Cooper from "The Wonder Years" but also a summa cum laude math grad from UCLA -- combines a step-by-step approach to middle-school math concepts with lots of personal anecdotes (such as how she once struggled with particular math problems) as well as stories of how other feminine women have excelled in the subject. Also adding some insight is McKellar's 12-year-old goddaughter, Tori.

Best of all, McKellar makes her points well. Each chapter is devoted to just one topic (i.e., decimals, or factoring) and uses real-life situations (baby-sitting, shopping) that really make things easy to understand.

Overall the book's chapter titles are a little too pink-and-purple for my tastes, but then again I'm not the target audience. I'm not 13, striving to define myself while getting Paris Hilton, the Pussycat Dolls and Hooters commercials driven into my brain. Girls can be smart AND feminine? Math is for them? Say amen, somebody!

This Danica is as good looking as the racing Danica and a great actress. She's a math whiz too. Well as a trained mathematician I can assure you that she proves in this book that she knows math, is proud of it and want other high school and junior high school girls to appreciate it too. The book is filled with interesting ways of teach junior and senior high school math that makes it fun and exciting. She would be a great teacher too. I think her goal is to be a role model for other girls who have an aptitude for mathematics. Girls have always been discouraged and discriminated against in this field. I remember at my high school I was the best math student but Linda Cirillo was a close second. Yet I was the one who got the encouragement and her talents were ignored. Years later I came back to my home town and found that while I was now a professional mathematician she was a house wife raising children. I hope things have improved over the last forty years.

This is a great book to give a child in high school who needs a little help and boost of confidence in math. When an author ahs the art of making things exciting rather than boring the student may develop an interest and capability that he or she never dreamed of!

I came across this book based on a news article about Danica McKellar. As the proud father of two middle school aged children (one boy and one girl) I am already seeing how differently boys are treated than girls when it comes to Math and Science. The schools seem to teach math from the male point of view. I can easily explain a math concept to my son and he can understand it, but I have not been able to explain the same concept to my daughter.
The book arrived last week, and my daughter seems to always have her nose in it. The book isn't designed to be read cover to cover, but to jump around as topics interest you. We had terrible problems last year with fractions, but after reading the section of fractions, my daughter claims that "she gets it". I have never seen my daughter excited about Math like this. If you have a middle school daughter who is struggling with the concepts, this is a must read for her.

My only complaint is that Danica hasn't written a survival guide for science yet! I am ordering a second book as a gift for the 6th grade math teacher to help with other girls who are struggling.

Having good math skills makes a person a better shopper and a better chef. Having good math skills simply makes an individual more confident in all areas of life. This is the message of this well written book. McKellar takes a step by step approach to math. I liked looking at the examples she provides, as I tried to solve the problems she includes in each chapter. Math Doesn't Suck is a good refresher for me, because I forgot a lot of things from my school days. I also learned new concepts like how to figure out rates and ratios. I enjoyed doing the fraction problems and algebra problems. They were challenging and fun for me to solve. I also enjoyed reading the testimonals from women who use math in their daily lives. There were interesting contributions from students and teachers and other professionals. I loved the contribution from Stephanie Peterson. She uses math on the job as a petroleum analyst, and she is also a professional actress. McKellar also shares personal experiences from her life. McKellar is an intelligent successful and humble young woman. Math Doesn't Suck is an educational and inspirational book. I loved it.

Few adults really like what's happening to girls these days - an obsessive focus on makeovers, cosmo, gossip, clothes, popularity, and boys. It has a lot of people wondering what will ever become of kids raised on this type of diet. But rather than fight the unfightable, Danica McKellar decided to leverage "girl culture" and offer a book that speaks to them in their own language.

"Math Doesn't Suck" does provide high-quality and carefully prepared material on middle-school math topics. All the stuffyness and "who cares?" writing found in textbooks is replaced with "let's get real" phrasing with a little attitude thrown in. Perfect for that sassy pre-teen in your family. But more importantly, it gets girls to think about why they need to develop their intellect, and how that plays a role in their lives. My daughter likes it and she's using it to polish up her skills before going back to school in September.

Even if this book were terrible, McKellar should get a medal for being brave enough (and for caring enough) to attempt it. But it's actually very well written and you can see how much effort went into it. So I hope one day this book wins an award. It deserves it.

This book has honestly changed my life. I have always struggled in Math and Danica presented the material in such a logical way that I now "get it". I highly recommend this book to anyone, at any age that has ever had a difficult time with Mathematics.

It's true. Math Doesn't Suck. Too many kids - boys and girls - give up on math when they get to a rough patch. For many different reasons, they decide that they can't do math because they just don't get it or they won't do math because it's not relevant to their lives. McKellar's book dispels these myths by showing that quantitative reasoning really is relevant to the problems of everyday life, and that interesting examples can help illuminate difficult concepts for students with a wide range of interests. Readers interested in helping girls develop their math-brain even as their lives change might also be interested in Danger, Long Division, a novel for preteens about a fifth-grader who learns to solve her math problems even while struggling with tough family issues.

I am a 38-year old mother of 5 who recently decided to go back to school. I took my placement test and tested into the lowest class available which was Basic Math. I was told that I could retake the test so I went to the library and checked out a bunch of math books to study and get prepared. I found Danica's book "Math Doesn't Suck" I read it first and read the entire book in one night. I loved it and everything began to make sense. I studied it for 2 weeks then went back and took my test again and tested into Intro to Algebra! I essentially skipped Basic Math and Pre-Algebra! This achievement has brought me renewed confidence in myself at a time when I need it most! It has saved me money and time that is so valuable to me. I live in Southern Ohio and am attending Hocking College! I am excited to read "Kiss my Math". Also I was told that she is writing a 3rd book in an email from her company. Thanks for writing a book that actually makes sense!

I am a guidance cousnelor in a local high school, and while I realize many people think of guidance counselors with the same disdain Kevin Smith has for us, as evidenced in the movie "Clerks"; I have stumbled upon a rather interesting element as of late. Lately, girls are tending to perform better in higher level math classes than their counterparts- boys. This observation alone is of no great significance, but the additional truth that girls often feel that being too smart is not helpful in the ever challenging, evolving, and dangerous social acceptance scence in American high schools does often constitute a reason for girls not performing up to their levels based upon these incorrect perceptions. Often these perception are that girls will not be popular or well liked if they exert too much of their own skills and intelligence in the class room.

This book is a welcome addition and an attempt to squelched the aforementioned observation. I bought this for my highly motivated and math savy 8th grade daughter. She devoured it. It instilled in her a sense of math confidence that she would lose at times inside a testerone filled math class. She is smart, but she doesn't like to compete for success much, particularly against Aplha adolescent boys. Here is this book written by a pretty, smart, and young women that has noteriety and fame, yet she tossed that aside to instruct kids about math. It is fun to read, and more than ever, it sends the message that math is relevant, fun, and vital to Americans.

I would recommend this book to any middle schooler that reads and has reservations about math. It may surely turn the corner for them