I don’t know about you, but I sometimes have trouble getting my checkbook to balance.  Dumb stuff like math errors or not entering something correctly (or not at all!) make it impossible.  Math!  Ugh! But what if math were something you could do to make magic happen?  Or what if the numbers danced on your page?  They did for Ian.

Ian was in the fourth grade this year and math and other subjects had become harder.  He liked school and seeing his friends, but his little brother, Sean, had a lot more trouble with it than he did.  His red hair became the object of teasing and he’s seen Ian perform feats of magic using his math skills – like the day the vacuum cleaner ran itself while Ian did his math homework.  To Sean, life wasn’t fair.

Ian Conner learned in the first grade he could perform magic using math. And this year, the prize for the annual math contest is $500! Ian really wants to win, but he knows classmate Thomas Martin will be stiff competition.  Thomas wins every year.  And this year he has a college tutor helping him prep for the contest! 

Ian decides to study accelerated math, hoping it will help him win. But when the day of the competition arrives Ian must make a difficult choice – hope his studying helps him win fair and square – or cheat using his “math magic” to win the contest.

What would you do if your little brother were always interfering, you had to share the only computer in the house that sat in the dining room, and you just HAD to win the annual math contest at school this year.

Life can be tough for a fourth grader, even if math is easy for them.  Ian will learn not only math lessons but life lessons as he and his brother negotiate school, brotherhood, and friendships. But Ian will always remember that math is magic!

What are you reading this week?