Solving For M - 9th article in a series of 9

 ***Skip the intro if you have already read any of the blogs in this series of 9.  Go straight to the Title and Author information.

***This blog entry is for teachers’ (and parents’) eyes only! It is intended to help teachers learn about the books on the William Allen White nominee list for this year, and then make decisions about how they might want to use some of these books during the upcoming school year.  There are 9 books on the list. This is the 9th blog in a series of 9.

The William Allen White Book Award is for kids in the state of Kansas to vote each year for their favorite from a list of nominated books. If you are a 3rd - 5th grade teacher in Kansas, this blog will hopefully be very useful. But even if you teach a grade level adjacent to these grades or teach somewhere other than Kansas, I think you will find some useful information regarding some books that have made it to the 2021-22 WAW nominated list.  

Title:  Solving For M

Author:  Jennifer Swendler

Format:  Chapter Book, 256 pages (NOT available in paperback)

This book is a realistic fiction friendship / family relationship story.  Mika is starting 5th grade at a middle school.  Her best friend is in a different “Pod” so they don’t spend much time together and Mika must try to make new friends.  Mika’s mother is diagnosed with Melanoma and it spreads to some of her lymphatic system.  Mika is very worried about her mom, but her mother tries to shield Mika by not telling her anything about the cancer or the treatments.  This makes Mika very frustrated.  Mika’s new math teacher is eccentric, but soon becomes one of Mika’s favorite teachers ever.  He has them write/draw in a math journal, and Mika uses the journal to help her sort out her thoughts about her mother.  

The math journal becomes a key component of this book.  Mika’s journal entries, which are mostly cartoon-style drawings, are interspersed with the text.  The end result is a chapter book that has a lot of graphic novel parts to it.  

This book is sure to be a favorite of teachers who like teaching math.  A variety of math concepts are covered via the math journal assignments.  I think this could be a great read aloud, especially for 5th grade since the math concepts should line up nicely with what most 5th graders would be learning in math.  I think it could also work well for 4th grade.  

I have one small concern about using it as a read aloud, though.  There are a couple of passages that reference or infer Santa Claus not being real.

From Unit 4 (approx. p. 53):  “Like when I was little and I asked her if Santa was real.  She said, “Santa Claus is the spirit of Christmas, which is very real.”  So not a lie, but not the truth, either.”

  And from Unit 7 (approx. p. 107):  “I know that Mom knows that I’m getting a little old for the whole Santa thing, but she seems happy.”  

These passages are vague and probably wouldn’t draw that much attention, but I want teachers to be aware of them if they are using this book as a read-aloud. 

If you do choose to use this as a read-aloud, be prepared to show the math journal entries via some sort of classroom projection.  They are a vital part of the story and will draw your students’ attention!