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| Hudson Street Press, Aug. 5 |
Remember Danica McKellar? No? How about Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years?
Yes, it's always tragic when a one's real-life identity is swallowed by a fictional role, and it's especially devastating for one's acting career. But instead seeking steady acting work, McKellar has reached into the recesses of her intellectual past — she majored in math at UCLA — to write books geared toward square-root-hating pre-teen girls.
Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who's Boss (Hudson Street Press) is the follow-up to her successful Math Doesn't Suck, with even more cute boy metaphors to help the 11-to-14 set grasp integers and exponents. For more than 300 pages, McKellar reframes math for pubescent perspectives: If it's too hard to remember that 3x and 4x can be added together, just realize that they like like each other (whereas 3xy and 4x are just friends). "Integer" may sound too dull, so just think of "mint-eger" — positives are peppermint and spearmint ("These are good for a date in case, you know, there's going to be kissing involved," McKellar writes), and negatives come from the risky Harry Potter Jelly Belly store.
I was never a pre-teen girl, but it still seems like Kiss My Math is the kind of book a mother would push on her daughter after some bad report cards. McKellar's tone is that of the grown-up trying to communicate to kids after adulthood has robbed her of the ability to relate, and she often comes off patronizing. But the unintentional condescension may be easily lost on the target audience. And hell, if it works — and the letters of appreciation spattered throughout the entire book suggest that it just might — then who am I to knock it?
I can't believe someone read that dribble in order to make a review. That is prostitution of the intellect.
I initially just wanted to find out if my friends were supportive enough, but then I decided I might as well take an entire crash course on pre-alegbra, Danica-style.
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