I Hate Mathematics! Book

by Marilyn Burns
Illustrated by Martha Weston

“I Hate Mathematics! Book” was on sale at a local bookstore in the children’s section. The price was right, and I was looking for an informational book. This book is written in comic book format with shaded pencil drawings and dialogue balloons.

Silly phrases like, “How’s trix?’ and “Neither of them knows squat…” fill the book. Each page is a new math game activity, or riddle. For example, one riddle asks, “Some months have 30 days, some 31. How many have 28?” The answer is, “All of them!” As a teacher, I found “I Hate Mathematics! Book” to be a terrific source of math warm-ups, to fill odd moments when a lesson ends sooner than expected, or to give to a student who finishes before his/her classmates.

However wonderful I found this book, I had doubts children would want to read it voluntarily so I had students review the book without prompting or an explanation why they were reviewing the book. Eight students reviewed “I Hate Mathematics! Book”. One student wrote, “I thought that even though it taught math, it was boring.” Three students said the book was boring. One girl wrote, “Even though math is pretty hard for me, this book made it fun to learn math.” Another student wrote that, "The book is funny because it jokes on math.” A different student wrote that he liked the book because it was in comic book form. Unfortunately, one student wrote that, “It made me feel dumb because I could only understand some of the words.” The reactions were clearly mixed.

“I Hate Mathematics! Book” was shelved in the children’s section, but the intended audience and buyers are adults. This book could be recommended for short periods of time on road trips, for limited use in the classroom, but not for a child to read independently.