Author: Danica McKellar
About the Author
Danica Mckelar, famous for her roles on The Wonder Years and The West Wing, is also an internationally recognized mathematician. Chosen as ABC World News Tonight's "Person of the Week" for writing the bestseller Math Doesn't Suck, she makes frequent national media appearances on TV and radio.
Price: $10.20
Book Description
The New York Times bestseller-from the author of Math Doesn't Suck-teaches girls how to kick pre-algebra butt.
In her New York Times bestselling books, actress and math genius Danica McKellar shatters the "math nerd" stereotype and gives girls the tools to ace middle-school math in her unique, just-us-girls style. Now, in her second book, Kiss My Math, McKellar empowers a new crop of girls-seventh to ninth graders-to tackle the next level of mathematics: pre-algebra.
Stepping up not only the math but the sass and style, McKellar helps math-phobic teenagers chill out and finally "get" negative numbers, variables, absolute values, exponents, and more. As she did so effectively in Math Doesn't Suck, McKellar uses personality quizzes, reader polls, real-life testimonials, and stories from her own life-in addition to clear instruction, helpful tips, and practice problems-revealing why pre-algebra is easier, more relevant, and more glamorous than girls think. McKellar is clearly reaching her audience: parents, teachers, and especially girls are asking for more.
Customer Reviews
Buy this for your daughter
This funny math book teaches girls that it's OK to be smart, and that they are perfectly capable of kicking a little pre-algebra butt.
McKellar takes a lightweight approach to math, but is deadly serious about it. In the prologue, she writes that "lots of people change their majors and abandon their dreams just to avoid a couple of math classes in college." Girls in particular, she emphasizes, often use their fear of math to keep them from learning the skills they'll need to succeed in life, and they start backing away from the subject in middle school.
And it's not just fear. Girls often don't see how they'll use math once they get out of school. Testimonials in Kiss My Math fight this. Stephanie Perry, the finance director for Essence magazine, explains how she uses algebraic formulas to stay on top of the magazine's financial performance. Jane Davis, financial strategist at Polo Ralph Lauren, was hired as an assistant buyer because of her facility with math. She describes determining inventory over time by finding the mean of a list of numbers.
McKellar -- famous for playing Winnie Cooper in the "The Wonder Years" but also a summa cum laude math graduate from UCLA -- uses simple language and lots of illustrations to teach pre-algebra. Each chapter covers a single topic, such as the distributive property or exponents. She clearly explains each topic, and includes problems for the reader to solve (answers are in the back). The author is generous with helpful notes and shortcuts.
Kiss My Math & Math Doesn't Suck
I am a mother that went back to college later in life. One of my classes was algebra. I had math anxiety and tried to find way to wiggle my way out of this class. The algebra class was very difficult for me. I could not understand the instructor or the book. I went to tutors,family members and friends and I could not get algebra. I failed the class. I was embarrassed and angry with my myself. I needed something right away. So my boyfriend and I went to Barnes & Nobles and purchased Kiss My Math & Math Doesn't suck. (I do suggest that you purchase both). So I had a six week break before I had to take the algebra class again. I am happy to say that I passed the algebra class with a B and I am looking forward to starting MATH 209 which is the second part of algebra. Danica was easy to understand and the experiences from other young ladies helped a great deal too. Thanks Danica
