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Gr 2-5 In Math Curse (Viking, 1995), a teacher's chance comment causes a girl to see every aspect of her life as a math problem. This time around, the fun starts when a boy hears this remark: "-if you listen closely enough, you can hear the poetry of science in everything." What follows is a series of poems that parody the styles of Joyce Kilmer, Edgar Allan Poe, Lewis Carroll, Robert Frost, and many others, as well as familiar songs and nursery rhymes. "Once in first grade I was nap...Log In or Sign Up to Read More

Nearly a decade ago, Math Curse (rev. 11/95) introduced a kid whose every thought turned into a mathematical problem. Now things go from "add" to "verse" as a teacher's comment ("if you listen closely enough, you can hear the poetry of science in everything") causes a boy to "start hearing everything as a science poem." Smith's illustrations—painterly despite the high camp—feature the bespectacled, bow-tied narrator trailed by apes in a "dawn of man" parade ("Glory, glory, evolution. / Darwin found us a solution"), looking aghast at the inside o...Log In or Sign Up to Read More