In addition to his work as an author, Jon also runs a web-based literacy program called 'Guys Read' that is designed to encourage boys, particularly reluctant readers, to get involved with books. He is the author of many books for children including the New York Times Best Illustrated Book The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (illustrated by Lane Smith), the Caldecott Honor book The True Story of the Three Little Pigs (illustrated by Lane Smith), and Math Curse (illustrated by Lane Smith). He taught elementary school in New York for ten years in a variety of positions. Jon went to school at Culver Military Academy in Indiana where he was a Lieutenant Albion College in Michigan where he studied to be a doctor and Columbia University in New York, where he received an M.F.A. Multiple award-winning author Jon Scieszka grew up in Flint, Michigan, the second oldest and the nicest of six boys. Here's a morsel: 'Does tunafish + tunafish = fournafish?' Kids will want seconds-count on it. I multiply times 2 socks and divide by 3 pillows to get 5 sheep, remainder 1, which is all I need to count before I fall asleep.' Like the text, Smith's wonderfully wacky collage-like art will give readers ample food for thought-even if it's part junk food. A minimum of the questions she asks herself are entirely logical ('How many quarts are in a gallon?') some are far-fetched extrapolations (if an M&M is about one centimeter long and the Mississippi River is about 4000 kilometers long, how many M&Ms would it take to measure the length of this river?) and a happily hefty number are sheer nonsense: 'I undo 8 buttons plus 2 shoelaces.

The day after her teacher announces, 'You know, you can think of almost everything as a math problem,' the narrator is afflicted with a 'math curse' that affects how she views every facet of her day ('Everything seems to be a problem').

Whew! This latest whimsical work from Scieszka and Smith (The True Story of the Three Little Pigs The Stinky Cheese Man) is bound to stretch out the old thinking cap.

By Grade + Interest - K to 1st By Grade + Interest - 2nd to 3rd By Grade + Interest - 4th to 5th

Math Curse by Jon Scieszka