An extremely witty, funny look at the psychology of a second-grader who hates mathematics. As she records her thoughts in her diary, you see glimpses of daily issues which irk and stagger a young child. Throughout the book, her views on math, math teachers, and math problems create a punching bag which serious followers of mathematics may find stereotypical (but I found myself chuckling and laughing throughout). This book is one of a series of “Dear Dumb Diary” books.

Excerpts:

“A kid who brags about his math skills is called an Algebrat”

“I, for one, believe that someone needs to sit Math down in a chair and say, ‘Math, it's time that you stopped creating issues like this for yourself. If you won't, we think that you should start solving your own problems, and not come crying to us whenever you want to know the solution to some imaginary drama that you've cooked up' {like the problem of a grape-hoarding Mark who has 100 grapes, 10 of which are taken away by Shawn and Math wants to know how many Mark has left}”

“Mr. Henzy, my math teacher, STILL seems interested in teaching me math, in spite of a great deal of evidence that it can't be done. It's kind of cute, like watching a baby try to reach something just outside his crib. A big, mean, boring baby. See, he gives me math problems, but I know that deep down I'm HIS math problem […] so he gives me bad grades, sends notes to my parents at home, who let me know over dinner that they are not happy about it.”

“This may sound like a negative attitude but it is hard to be positive about numbers after you have learned that half of them are negative themselves.”

“In my math problems, Lady Gaga drives her own bus”

“This is one of the great things with words — you get to learn new ones all the time. It doesn't happen that way with numbers” [followed by a cartoon about a mathematician who discovers a number between 7 and 8 and her colleagues going giddy]