Math Attack

Math Attack! by Joan Horton
Illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker
2009

     I guess I must confess that I'm a complete math geek.  I love math!...just ask my students.  So finding a picture book about math combines my two loves:  words and numbers.  As soon as I spotted Math Attack! at my city library, I knew I had to check it out.
     A girl is in her arithmetic class when her teachers asks her what's 7 times 10.  She tries so hard to come up with the right answer, that her brain explodes and numbers start running all over the place causing all kinds of trouble.  Chaos endures until she finally comes up with the right answer.  Excited about feeling like math had finally clicked in her head, she returns to arithmetic class and says "Hooray, bring it on!"
     I love the fact that the main character in a book about math is a girl and that she ends the story eager to learn more about numbers.  I've spent many a days trying to change my girl students' preconceptions about math.  They see it as a boy subject at which they will never be able to be good at.  We need more read-alouds to debunk that stereotype.  Girls who like math rock!