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

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
The runaway national bestseller, now in paperback

Customer Reviews: Read 95 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Imagine "Teen Cosmo" publishing INTRO TO JUNIOR-HIGH MATH August 4, 2007
121 out of 125 found this review helpful

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.

5 out of 5 stars

Makeup and math? Hallelujah! August 2, 2007
74 out of 79 found this review helpful

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!

5 out of 5 stars

math for the masses in junior and high school classes May 5, 2008
53 out of 55 found this review helpful

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!

5 out of 5 stars

Feminism via Fractions. August 16, 2007
41 out of 50 found this review helpful

Okay, so this isn't really a book on feminism, or its ideals. Or is it?

Danica McKellar does a wonderful job of encouraging girls to believe in themselves and in their ability to master math.
The book helps girls to understand that they don't have to "dumb-down" (for boys or anyone) and that they CAN excel in mathematics while still being "girly" (if that's what they WANT to be).

Choice, intelligence, mastery. Sounds like feminism to me. :)
Best of all, the book succeeds in its mission: making math truly understandable for the middle-school female via real-life examples they can relate to.

Fabulous! Get a copy for your daughter, niece, little sister. Or get a copy for you, just to remind yourself what it is we should be teaching our girls.

2 out of 5 stars

Encouraging "Valley Girls"? October 2, 2007
41 out of 61 found this review helpful

I teach math methods at a university and have a middle school aged granddaughter. I have two issues with this book: I believe it promotes a "Valley Girl" stereotype that girls are ditzy and materialistic, and it teaches procedures, not concepts. As a female, I'm a little insulted by chapter titles that deal with crushes, shopping, and shoes. Is this really what our girls are all about? Skills reminders are just memorized steps. I see little if any math understanding. I do like the encouraging "You can do it!" attitude. This piece is badly needed in a world where girls seem to think they can't "do math" once they hit junior high. But I recommend an approach that has more respect for the complexity of adolescent girls.

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