As a high school math teacher, I love finding fun ways to share math with kids. Recently I have been reading Learning to Love Math by Judy Willis, M.D. In it she mentions how math is the one school subject that conjures up a series of emotions for most people and usually they are negative. I cannot tell you how many times people tell me they can't do math or hated math when they find out I'm a math teacher. One of the things Dr. Willis mentions is we need to change this in society. We need to stop telling kids that adults didn't do well or hate math. Parents, teachers, coaches, etc. are giving kids permission to not do well in math and to not really try. So please if you are one of the people who does not like math or didn't do well, please keep it to yourself. Don't give kids the permission to be like you. It is something we are working on at our school this year. With that said I get to share a great series of middle grades mystery novels about a bunch of math loving students who use their math to solve mysteries!! The series is The Math Inspectors by Daniel Kenney and Emily Boever. This series is recommended for ages 9 to 12.
From the Publisher:
Stanley, Charlotte, Gertie, and Felix are just your typical twelve-year-old kids. They love to hang out after school...they love burgers and milkshakes...and they love math.And if there's one thing they love even more than math, it's solving mysteries! Thankfully, their hometown of Ravensburg, New York has plenty of mystery, and quite a few secrets.
From Me:
Ok, I love mysteries and I love having math used in real life examples so these books are amazing!! They are fun stories with math built in. The kids are your everyday math loving kids. They love to get together and talk, eat, and be. Their hangout is Felix's treehouse and Mabel's diner. Think small town USA. Their peer rivals are the English club. Not sure math and English loving people have to not get along, but it gives them someone to debate with. The stories are interesting and fun to read. Kids will enjoy them even if they don't love math!! They add in a new member to their club, and he is not a math genius, so they are often explaining the math to him or each other so the book has some great explanations of the math.
The math is a bonus, and the topics of math are wide ranging. There are odds and betting, the Golden ratio, Fibonacci series, Pythagorean Theorem, and more! Some of these topics aren't covered in traditional math classes but are fun topics to learn about. Then at the end of each book are some math problems for the reader to see if he/she has what it takes to be a math inspector.
The math inspectors are a diverse group of kids. The original are two boys and two girls. One of the boys is tall and can be annoying with his comments (think typical middle school boy) and eating habits. The other boy is the leader and is a math genius. Although race is not discussed he is drawn as a Black boy. He is also afraid of many things and hates haunted houses, roller coasters, and more. The girls are different as well. One is shorter and stockier, and the other is more athletic. Their fifth member added in the second book seems to be Asian. The kids' interactions are fun and humorous at times. The books are easy to read and easy to get into. The mysteries are well written, and you will not guess the endings early on. There are many twists and turns to each one. I honestly hope these books will be added to every elementary/middle school library and the classrooms. They are such a wonderful way to bring math into real life situations (though some are more contrived than others) and show kids that math can be useful and fun. In a time when we need to inspire more kids into STEM fields all of which include math, these books are a great introduction to the fun side of math. I hope you will check them out!
