Do the Math #2: The Writing on the Wall

by Wendy Lichtman

Overview

In this follow-up to Do the Math: Secrets, Lies, and Algebra, Tess learns that life, like algebra, sometimes has no solutions. Sometimes you just have to take a risk and figure out your own answers.

The spring semester of eighth grade, like algebra, has become even more complicated for math-lover Tess. There’s the new girl at school, whom Tess is not quite sure is a friend. There’s bully Richard, who keeps playing mean pranks on her—but if she tells on him, he can finally call her a snitch, so she’s not sure she should.

There’s mysterious graffiti on the wall that seems to be a math code. Is it meant for Tess to understand? Could it have anything to do with the fire set in evil Mr. Z’s classroom?

Finally, Damien seems to be hanging around more than ever, but she’s not sure why— is it because he likes her, or is it just a “coincidental system” like the one she learned about in algebra class?

In the end, Tess figures out that sometimes life doesn’t offer formulas to figuring out the answers. Sometimes you have to take a risk and create your own formulas and discover your own solutions, even if you make a few mistakes along the way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061229589
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/24/2008
Series:	Do the Math , #2
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	1,114,744
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)
Lexile:	1050L (what's this?)
Age Range:	13 Years

About the Author

Wendy Lichtman writes personal essays for the Washington Post, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Good Housekeeping, among other national publications. She has also written four previous young adult novels, including Do the Math: Secrets, Lies, and Algebra. She holds a degree in mathematics and has tutored public-school students in algebra for several years. When she decided to write about a teenage girl who realizes that some questions have more than one right answer, algebra, with its unknowns and variables, seemed a perfect metaphor. Wendy Lichtman lives in Berkeley, California.

Table of Contents

Patterns     1
Three Thirds     15
The Four Fours     28
Graphs     35
Formulas     48
Codes     61
Collecting Data     69
Knives and Fires     80
Absolute Value     93
Rate of Change     104
Graphic Stories     113
The Real Story     127
Coincidental Systems     135
No Formulas     150
Family Patterns     164
Tessellations     179
Simplifying Expressions     188
[Delta] (Which, in Algebra, Means "Change")     201
Probability: What Are The Chances?     210

Editorial Reviews

Gr 5-9

This sequel to Do the Math: Secrets, Lies, and Algebra (HarperCollins, 2007) picks up the story of Tess, an eighth grader who copes with uncertain situations and unpredictable people by applying mathematical equations or symbols, an approach that gives her comfort and perspective. After seeing a series of numbers graffitied on a building near school, Tess recognizes that it is a math puzzle and solves it to reveal a secret code. When she decodes the word "arson," she realizes that someone is trying to communicate shocking information to her (there has recently been an unexplained fire at school). Though aware of the punishment for defacing property, she writes her own message on the wall in an attempt to get more information. She eventually solves the mystery, but ends up getting more than she bargained for when she is caught and must face the consequences. She also wrestles with peer relationships as she deals with a boy who is tormenting her and tries to figure out contradictions in a new friend. Lichtman cleverly incorporates mathematical concepts into Tess's narrative, keeping the ideas simple and explaining them in terms that readers can understand. Tess is likable and navigates through her problems in a realistic manner.-Amelia Jenkins, Juneau Public Library, AK

School Library Journal

This sequel to Secrets, Lies, and Algebra (2007) continues the saga of math-obsessed eighth-grader Tess. As she is still being tormented by Richard, whose cheating she helped to expose in Secrets, Tess assumes that the mysterious numbers that appear on the wall near the school are just more of his ubiquitous threats to make her life miserable. However, with the help of steadfast friends Sammy and Miranda, Tess figures out that the codes are actually the work of someone desperate to reveal a secret about a different classmate. Tess deciphers the code and figures out who is writing it, but she gets busted for her graffiti in the process. An entertaining mystery is interspersed with formulas and graphs and weighted down with a little hard-earned wisdom, as Tess comes to a deeper understanding of the need to balance her own desire for freedom of expression with a larger civic responsibility. Good fun for all, and a special treat for those who share Tess's fascination with figures, facts and formulas. (Fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews