Middle school | Page 4 of 7

The Big Fat High School Algebra 1 Workbook, a go-to resource for higher grades

Know your role. My wife and I echo that sentiment made famous by The Rock many times a week. When we use it means that our strengths and weaknesses need to be realistically acknowledged and utilized, or not, accordingly. For us, it’s not used as a pejorative, but when The Rock said it it was usually meant as a precursor to someone getting the rock bottom. I know my role when it comes to math homework. I can assist with social studies homework. I can assist with English homework. When it gets past seventh-grade math homework, my quality is suspect and I need to flag up for help. If you’ve been to a big box warehouse store you have seen The Big Fat High School Algebra 1 Workbook, and we can 100% attest to the fact that this book saved our bacon the other week.

The Big Fat High School Algebra 1 Workbook is an interactive, step-by-step look at how to master this math discipline for those that need help or really want to excel.

Our 13-year-old came home and needed help with his math homework. He was babbling something about not understanding slope and slope-intercept form and all I could do was think of some lame skiing joke that might’ve been remotely humorous to those inclined. Actually, I did substitute last year for an advanced eighth-grade math class that covered that subject, but my ability to parrot that information was flushed down the memory hole. With the immediacy of his quiz and the fact that I knew The Big Fat High School Algebra 1 Workbook was in the other room, I got it for him to research it himself.

The great thing about 13-year-olds is that they can research and obtain their own answers. We explained to him that my math abilities were suspect and that every process and answer he was seeing was correct. He could try out the way he thought to solve each equation, and then confirm or correct his approach. In true math caveman style I could’ve Googled how to do it, watched said video and then had him sit with me once I knew the process. I could’ve done that, yes. However, that would’ve taken too long, watered down his desire to do his homework in a timely manner and possibly produced answers that I couldn’t explain.

What’s great about The Big Fat High School Algebra 1 Workbook is that it’s approachable, takes baby steps, and sets the students up for success. As the content was vaguely familiar to me I could understand it once I took my time and analyzed how they were completing the equations. The written descriptions have keywords that are bolded with simple, direct definitions. There are ten units, with each chapter given one given a different colored page border in order to distinguish the areas and provide subconscious goals for them to achieve.

For the non-math inclined, you will be able to understand the book. The text is written in simple English that is not presented in a way that’s designed to trick you. It cuts right to the point and has anything that could be remotely tricky like domain, exponent or radicand in bigger, different-colored font, as well as, an arrow pointing to the numbers in questions. In theory, you could start from zero knowledge and figure out how to assist their kids with homework using The Big Fat High School Algebra 1 Workbook. The book can operate as a teaching tool like that, but it’s going to be best utilized as a review aide for upper middle school or high school students.

Each unit has several chapters that break down the large topic to more palatable sections. The end of each chapter has several questions to test student’s math comprehension. Most importantly, there are answers with step-by-step instructions on how each problem was solved. This is more of a solution process, instead of an answer key because it shows students how each step in the problem should look in order to get the correct answer. There are more than 400 exercises and word problems in the book to help students master Algebra 1. The great thing about math is that anyone can do it, it just takes practice. Some students will understand the process with minimal explanation, and some will require multiple explanations, but anyone can learn it.

Our youngest is one who needs to encounter the steps many different times and with many different equations in order for him to understand it. The Big Fat Workbook series will be his comforting jam as he continues up the middle school ranks. Like a good salesperson it tells people what they’ll learn, shows them what they’ll learn, has them practice some problems and then moves on to the next issue. Another great aspect of The Big Fat High School Algebra 1 Workbook is that its retail price is only $16.99. It’ll be cheaper at big box stores and when you factor in that it provides hours of algebra practice and could possibly avoid the need for a math tutor it makes the book an invaluable resource.

The Big Fat High School Algebra 1 Workbook is written by Robert Vigneri, reviewed by Richar Blankman and available on Workman Publishing Co., Inc, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group.

There are affiliate links in this post.

Finch House nails the age-appropriate scary scene for ages eight and up

The other year I read The Thief of Always to a group of fifth-grade students. I personally had read some Clive Barker before and wasn’t familiar with this dark fantasy release that’s come to be a modern-day classic. What makes that book so awesome is what makes Finch House, a really great book for those middle-elementary school through lower middle-school readers. It’s age-appropriate scary, which is a really tough characteristic to nail down because if it’s too soft then the young readers will see it as babyish and if it’s too graphic then it won’t be attractive to those readers at all.

Finch House is an age-appropriate ghost tale for ages eight and up that starts dark and evolves into a heartfelt story with spooky vibes.

finicky mglit readers who want genuine creeps beware

The Curious League of Detectives and Thieves 2: S.O.S, is story strong mglit

Charming is an underused and dangerous word to describe mglit. Some readers might view it as a less juvenile way to describe something when you’re tempted to use ‘cute’. The kitten is cute. The behavior of someone else’s six-year-old child is cute. The behavior of any 10-year-old does not want to be perceived as cute. That’s the sort of behavior that causes your grandmother to pinch your cheeks, and no self-respecting kid over eight wants that. The Curious League of Detectives and Thieves 2: S.O.S. by Tom Phillips, is a very charming book in the best of all possible ways. It’s mglit that’s the second one in the series and has enough humor, action, and intrigue to hook readers who are in middle school and older.

The Curious League of Detectives and Thieves 2: S.O.S. is story centric mglit that readers can jump into this sophomore entry and still be comfortable.

MGLIT in its sophomore book that hooks in readers who don’t know about ti

Once Upon Another Time: Happily Ever After sticks the finale

Trilogies are tricky business. Which came first, the trilogy or the story? That’s the question that sometimes vexes readers and reviewers. If you add too much backstory then it could water down the traction that readers would have with the characters, but if you don’t add enough then people won’t be emotionally invested in them. I completely understand the creative will to have more than one book, but am aware that it can be perceived as simply needing multiple entries to sell books. It’s a thin line, isn’t it? Once Upon Another Time: Happily Ever After (or Once Upon Another Time 3) deftly approaches that line, happily looks over it, and then dances back and forth over that line on repeated occasions.

Happily Ever After, the third and final book in the Once Upon Another Time series, pokes, dances and has fun with expectations and fairy tale tropes.

Rounding out the series with fun to spare

Time to Roll, continues to move with middle school, mglit ease

You don’t need to read Roll With It in order to enjoy Time to Roll. As a matter of fact, that first book snuck up on us because it adhered to the age-old saying of not judging a book by its cover. Time to Roll follows that formula so successfully that it doesn’t feel like a sequel to another book, but it is. Part of that is our fault because we’ve seen too many follow-ups, sequels, or properties that intended to make themselves multiple entries; but instead merely check off formulaic boxes. Middle school readers, if they give Time To Roll an opportunity, will find themselves enjoying a story that they never thought they would.

Time to Roll is realistic fiction, great storytelling that tells us about two people that we don’t know, but seems a lot like someone that we might.

Realistic fiction that’s on a roll with readers

The Umbrella Maker’s Son left us feeling all wet

It’s possible to be too clever or too meta when audiences aren’t ready for it yet. The Umbrella Maker’s Son falls into one, or two of those traps.* The surface of The Umbrella Maker’s Son has a lot going for it that will be attractive to middle school readers. Oscar Buckle is the titular son of an umbrella maker, named after their family and boy does the city ever need umbrellas.** Everything is going well with Buckle and their umbrellas, after all, they’re the best in town and priced appropriately.**** Unfortunately, the city’s other umbrella manufacturer is selling more market share. This causes Oscar to have to quit school and work for his father as an apprentice to learn the family business and ask questions about the competitor.

The Umbrella Maker’s Son is softly paced mglit that meanders its way to a fate that readers can see coming.

Sometimes, less is more

Fann Club: Batman Squad, big laughs in text and art for this all-age winner

Fann Club: Batman Squad is not a story that exists in the multiverse. There also isn’t a typo in the book’s cover. Once you see the cover it’s obvious that it’s a graphic novel intent on making elementary school-age readers and up laugh, which it succeeds at very quickly. Our sometimes surly 13-year-old picked up Fann Club: Batman Squad, plopped himself on the sofa, and proceeded to read it. This is worth noting because he’s an avid reader, but mainly sticks to mglit. “This is from the Catwad guy, isn’t it?”, he asked. Yeah, some readers might know Jim Benton from that, but they also might recognize his work from the Dear Dumb Diary book series, Franny K. Stein books, Victor Shmud or his cartooning work. For me, the most entertaining was Attack of the Stuff, which was criminally ignored and still is by most elementary school libraries that I visit. Fann Club: Batman Squad is a Jim Benton book because it’s his style, set against the background of a young boy who knows everything about Batman.

Fann Club: Batman Squad is an original graphic novel that aims at elementary school ages, but covers ages eight and up.

Proof that great IP can cross demographics and still entertain.

Lia Park and the Heavenly Heirlooms delivers the sophomore goods

Oh Lia Park, you continue to defy our expectations. Your freshman book, Lia Park and the Missing Jewel, had all of the markings for rote, by-the-numbers mglit, until I actually read it. The stereotypical place where I thought your book should be categorized was replaced with variety, a great heel, and a breathlessly fun pace. Now the second book in the series, Lia Park and the Heavenly Heirlooms, opens with Lia’s summer coming to an end and her attendance at the International Magic School about to commence. Hey, look, another book about teen kids at a magic school, where do I sign up to read this one? Yet again, author Jenna Yoon spins a tale that takes staple elements and situations, and turns it into an mglit read that will satisfy fans of the genre and beyond.

Lia Park and the Heavenly Heirlooms stares at the sophomore book curse and happily dances past it with humor, action and quality world building.

Lia Park, going all Empire strikes back in an mglit way