{"id":28424,"date":"2016-01-25T23:11:20","date_gmt":"2016-01-26T03:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=28424"},"modified":"2016-01-25T23:11:20","modified_gmt":"2016-01-26T03:11:20","slug":"review-of-numbed-by-david-lubar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=28424","title":{"rendered":"Review of Numbed! by David Lubar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"numbed_large\"<\/a>Numbed!<\/em><\/p>\n

by David Lubar<\/p>\n

Millbrook Press, 2013. 144 pages.
\n2015 Mathical Honor Book<\/a><\/p>\n

I read this book while waiting for the Metro on the way to the National Book Festival \u2013 where I got to meet the author at the Mathical booth! I already knew I enjoy his sense of humor because of his Twitter posts as well as his writing, and I\u2019m happy that he turned toward numbers with this book.<\/p>\n

In Numbed!<\/em>, the kids from Punished!<\/a><\/em> get into new trouble at the Math Museum. They go into an experimental area where they\u2019re not supposed to go, and an angry robot zaps them so they\u2019re numbed. First they can\u2019t do any math at all; when they fix that (by solving a problem in the matheteria, where a special \u201cfield\u201d helps them), they can only do addition and subtraction, but not multiplication and division. When they fix that, they still can\u2019t do word problems or apply mathematical reasoning to anything.<\/p>\n

Now, as a math person, I really have to work hard at suspending disbelief for this story! Multiplication is repeated addition, so the idea that the kids would be able to add and subtract but not multiply didn\u2019t work for me. Of course, the kids figured that out \u2013 that was how they got around the problem. But that areas of math are so distinct? No, I couldn\u2019t quite handle that! And then the hand-waving involved in the robot being able to \u201cnumb\u201d them and the matheteria having a \u201cfield\u201d making it easier to do math problems? Aaugh!<\/p>\n

But I really wanted to like the book. It won a Mathical Honor! And I like the author! So let\u2019s point out all the good things about it. First, I do like the characters \u2013 boys who can\u2019t stay out of trouble. At the start of the book, they don\u2019t see what math is good for \u2013 and they definitely find out it\u2019s good for many, many things when they lose the ability to do it.<\/p>\n

I really enjoyed the high-level problems the boys had to solve to break their curse. The boys applied creative reasoning, and the problems and solutions were all explained clearly \u2013 and we believed that the boys could figure them out, at least in the enhanced \u201cfield.\u201d<\/p>\n

In general? The premise was a little hard for me to get past \u2013 but in practice, the book was a whole lot of fun. It\u2019s also a quick read \u2013 I only read it while I was waiting for the Metro, not while the Metro was moving, and finished the whole thing on National Book Festival day.<\/p>\n

Punished!<\/em> has been very popular with kids in our county. I hope they\u2019ll also find out about Numbed!<\/em>. A silly school story \u2013 with math!<\/p>\n

davidlubar.com<\/a>
\nmillbrookpress.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Fiction\/numbed.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

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