The Math Kids: A Knotty Problem
The Math Kids: A Knotty Problem
The sleek blue helicopter swooped in low over the top of McNair Elementary School. From the helicopter’s window, Jordan Waters could clearly see a partially deflated volleyball near one edge of the roof.
“Do you see that?” he asked.
“Yeah, I bet that’s the one Dylan kicked up there during recess last week,” Justin Grant said.
Jordan started to ask if the pilot could land on the roof so they could retrieve it but thought better about it.
“Is that Vivie and Ally on the playground?” Catherine Duchesne asked. The two sisters were twins and never went anywhere without the other.
“I think so,” Stephanie Lewis said. She waved her hand frantically as the girls looked up. The twins waved back and stared as the helicopter settled gently onto the grassy soccer field.
“Thanks so much for the helicopter ride!” Jordan said enthusiastically with an ear-to-ear grin on his face.
“Don’t mention it, Jordan,” Willard Howell said with a smile almost as wide. “It was the least I could do.”
The four friends had helped the eccentric billionaire out of a tricky situation. To return the favor, Howell had agreed to grant Jordan’s wish for a ride in his helicopter.
Once the rotors had spun down, Howell hopped out of the helicopter and helped the four to the ground.
“You’re okay making it home from here?” he asked.
“Sure, Mr. Howell,” Justin answered. “It’s only a couple of blocks.”
“Well, I want to thank each of you again,” he said, solemnly shaking each of their hands. You know I still owe you one, right?
“We’ll keep that in mind, Mr. Howell,” Jordan said.
Usually the Math Kids, Stephanie, Jordan, Justin and Catherine, are a happy, intelligent group of grade sixers who love math and spend a great deal of their time working on math problems preparing for competition. They not only have fun doing these problems, but they have used their skills to help the police and FBI solve cases and save lives and fortunes. But in this novel, the Math Kids face personal challenges as a group and individually. And there are always a multitude of math problems.
Stephanie loves soccer and is definitely the best player on her team. Her team is working hard to prepare for the state tournament, but a problem arises. The state tournament is on the same day as the math competition that she and the Math Kids have been working so hard to prepare for. When Stephanie feels that she can’t let her soccer team down, Justin becomes angry and basically kicks her off the math team. Catherine decides that, if that is the way Justin is going to act, she will quit and support Stephanie. Suddenly, the math team cannot compete because they need a team of four. And so the week passes without any solution. Then Justin finds out that his father has been offered a job in another city, a job he can’t refuse. Justin is in turmoil over the recent events with really no way to handle them. Jordan, meanwhile, is going to have his first sailing lesson with his dad and begins learning about knots, an important skill if you want your sail boat to stay tied up. Stephanie approaches the school board with a plan to solve the problem of both tournaments being on the same day and finds she has support from the other math teams. And Jordan comes up with a plan that will keep the Math Kids together.
There is a divergent theme in this novel. There are still many cool math problems to help solve and new ideas presented by the adults in their lives, but the Math Kids are challenging themselves with new activities. And there are challenges that involve emotions that are somewhat new to the kids. They are finding that the relationships they develop with friends and family can be complicated and fragile. There are new skills that must be developed to handle these complications. But, perhaps the most important lesson the kids learn is that every problem is easier to solve when it is shared…tough math problems, emotional issues, or learning new skills. Teamwork!
The Math Kids: A Knotty Problem has many math problems that readers can help solve and feel like they are part of the Math Kids group. There is a problem solving method introduced that readers can use in their own classes and a wealth of interesting information and math in an appendix at the end of the novel. But the thing I like the best about this and all of the books in the “Math Kids” series is that they are readable at the child level and at the adult level, especially if they are shared.
Elaine Fuhr, a retired elementary and middle school teacher, lives in Alberta.