Do the Math: Secrets, Lies, and Algebra (Do the Math, 1)

Do the Math: Secrets, Lies, and Algebra has more than a few secrets of its own. Wendy Lichtman does the tasking job of incorporating both literature and math into a novel that takes mathematical concepts beyond the realm of the classroom. Through the life of Tess, we find many natural conflicts of an 8th grade girl as well as some unexpected points of pure suspicion. Throughout the novel, we find Tess, an 8th grade girl who is just trying to make it through middle school, use her love of math to process and attempt to find answers to the real conflicts in her life. She uses a variety of algebra concepts to really contemplate different aspects in her life. Little does Tess know that algebra is not only a subject to study in school, but a metaphor for life with all the variables, unknowns, and problems with more than one right answer. Lichtman does a solid job of bringing mathematical concepts into the real world of a middle school girl that really illuminates and illustrates how mathematical concepts can be used in everyday life. Through the life of Tess she makes the argument that math is a subject that can be used to process everyday life. For example, Tess uses the concept of the difference between a line and a line segment to contemplate life after death. While Tess contemplates a lot of heavy issues that some students may face through middle school such as cheating on a test, friends, and dealing with teachers, I find that Lichtman writes to a very limited audience for a middle school novel. Given Litchman’s background of writing essays for the New York Times and the Washington Post, I’m sure she understands the essence of the particular audience her novel points to.While the form of a novel fits the intent of the writing well, some of its examples using Tess’s life seem less than authentic for me. I am persuade by this work of the novel that mathematical concepts can stretch outside of the math classroom, but I’m afraid some students would really struggle to relate to Tess’s life and therefore miss the point of this novel. Understanding that not every book is written for the entire audience of the world, I would recommend this book to students who I felt could learn from Tess’s life or relate personally to her in some way. As a middle school math teacher looking for a novel to incorporate into a whole class read aloud, I would choose this novel for my students.Lichtman’s degree of mathematics serves her very well throughout the math conceptual side of this novel. The level of mathematical vocabulary offers algebra students and readers alike the chance to not only learn technical math vocabulary, but learn the words from Tess’s point of view, by Tess’s definitions and real world applications of the concepts. The novel even while written in an appropriate prose for middle school students, offers math vocabulary and skills I would like to see in my own algebra students. If the math concepts weren’t enough, the plot of the novel keeps you going to the very last page! The character development is of a predictable pattern, but offers unique ways of describing characters in terms of math as Tess describes her friend Sammy as s to the fifth power. More novels need to do the work Lichtman has set out to do by incorporating a variety of content areas into novels for the audiences of students.

Secrets, Lies, and Algebra by Wendy Lichtman is a story about an ordinary girl who is all about math. She is in to doing school activities and being a major help to other people. She works in the copy machine room and a boy, named Richard, stole the big social studies test to copy. Tess thinks he is getting a cheat sheet.When she came home that day, she realized her mom was upset. She heard her say,"Rob's wife is dead, Nina." rob was a good friend of her mother's. She thought Rob killed his own wife. When Tess was eating dinner, she was trying to figure out the horrible tragedy. Her mom is trying to keep it a secret and doesn't want anybody knowing about Nina.Tess likes to visualize and imagine everything in math. She works out every real-life situations like math problems. She's learning about something something called DNE, which means does not exist. She doesn't like to think of that to be the answer of Nina, because she doesn't want to think there is no answer. In social studies, Tess is deciding to tell Mr.Wright about what Richard did.Tess told Miranda and Sammy, her two close friends, about Nina's death. She's learning about a theorem and an axiom, which she could relate to Nina and Rob. Sammy and Tess went to Rob's house after school to investigate and look around. Tess started talking about zero. She said it's a positive number. Miranda and or Sammy told Lynn about Nina's death, which means one of them broke their promise.I liked this book because some people can relate to these kinds of situations. Tess likes math and so are a lot of other people. I gave this book five stars.Written by Brooke B.

I didn't like what I thought was "flippant" talk about suicide.

Okay, the main character is an eight-grader and I'm a 72 year-old former teacher, but I liked it. It was more of a detective story than I thought it would be and the detective work was well done. Lichtman did a good job developing her characters who were all believable. First there was the problem of the handsome classmate who was cheating and then the neighbor who maybe had something to do with his wife's death ... ! Our little heroine deals with it all without becoming a "snitch." A rather delightful read even for a "grown-up" like me. I gave it to my niece afterwards who is now a seventh-grader. I am sure she will like it if she ever gets around to reading it (and stops chasing boys).

This book was really good but wasn't as long as it could be. It kind of didn't finish the story. I liked how it connected math to real life problems and how they could be solved. I suggest this book for an age group of 11-14 because it wasn't too adult like but not that much of a children's book either. Overall this book is a good quick and easy opportunity to catch a good story!

I originally read this book for a college class I am taking in which we had to find a Middle School math book that we could implement in our own classrooms one day. After reading this book, I will certainly use it in my classroom. It is a great story that describes a middle school girl and her struggle with keeping secrets and dealing with friends. I loved how the author integrated middle school math concepts throughout the story. It was a fun, interesting read that can also be used to reiterate certain math ideas. I highly recommend it!!

As a teacher, I was looking for a book I could use in my math classes. It seems that I have found it. The students really enjoyed reading this realistic fiction/mystery. What I liked was showing the kids how math was used in the novel. The best part was the kids did not even realize they were reviewing math.

It felt a little over the top plot wise, but it was a good read non the less. It was fun.