The Math Kids: A Sequence of Events
The Math Kids: A Sequence of Events
On Friday morning, Justin, Stephanie, and I left early for school and arrived just after Old Mike, the school janitor, opened the front door of the school. He greeted us with his normal big smile.
“You kids are here early today. Just can’t get enough of school, huh?”
“You sure know us, Old Mike,” I replied.
“What’s that you got there?” he asked, pointing to the stack of papers I had printed the day before.
“Oh, just some flyers we’re going to put up around the school,” Stephanie said.
We moved on before the friendly janitor could ask any more questions. We split up. Stephanie and Justin took both sides of the main hallway, while I tackled the announcement boards at the front of the school. In twenty minutes, we had taped the flyers all up and down the hallway. We saved a handful for our own classroom: two on the whiteboard at the front of the room, two on the door, and one on Susie’s chair.
When we had finished putting up the flyers, we retreated to the school cafeteria to wait. We didn’t want anyone to suspect we had anything to do with the flyers. It also gave us a good way to avoid Robbie and his buddies, who were still angry from the day before. It looked like our truce with the bullies was over.
The Math Kids are back, and so is Mrs. Gouche, their fourth grade teacher, and the bullies, Robbie and his gang. It seems like Jordan, Stephanie and Justin have finally developed a truce with the bullies, but how likely is that to last? The Math Kids are very excited because Mrs. Gouche has just announced that there will be a math competition in four weeks time. They have an excellent team and are more than a little confident that they can win – until their teacher drops a bomb and tells them that they need a fourth member on their team. What’s even worse is that Mrs. Gouche chooses their fourth teammate, Susie, a girl from a lower math group. Because this girl’s mom is a squeaky wheel in the school, Susie generally gets to do whatever she wants to do. But Susie is not good at math. The Math Kids really want the new girl, Catherine, but they have to find a way to get Susie to quit. The Math Kids have just figured out how to do that and have asked Catherine to join them when she stops coming to school. Catherine seems to have disappeared. The Math Kids have very little time to find out what has happened and how to find her. As in the last novel of the Math Kids, they turn to math to solve the problem, and their process is truly amazing and fun.
I really enjoy the Math Kids novels. They are well-written and very interesting, and, additionally, the math problems are super interesting. While The Math Kids: A Sequence of Events is a youth novel, the math puzzles are so interesting that I enjoy trying to figure them out, and, believe me, they are not necessarily easy. Factorials are the math concept introduced in this story, and working with them is actually fun, as are all the facts about where they are found in nature. The puzzles are presented to the reader first to try to solve, and then the story continues as the team works through them. Who knew math could be so much fun and so helpful in finding solutions to common or not so common problems. The Math Kids: A Sequence of Events is well-worth using in the classroom as a novel study or as an individual read, and the book would certainly be a good idea in a math class. Kids who enjoy math will love this one, and those who are not so sure about math are bound to find the puzzles and concepts very interesting.
Elaine Fuhr, a retired elementary and middle school teacher, lives in Stony Plain, Alberta.