The book, which is told by a nameless female student, begins with a seemingly innocent statement by her math teacher- "you know, almost everything in life can be considered a math problem." The next morning, the heroine finds herself thinking of the time she needs to get up along the lines of
Algebra . Next comes the mathematical school of
Probability , followed by
Charts and
Statistics . As the narrator slowly turns into a "math zombie", everything in her life is transformed into a problem. A class treat of cupcakes becomes a study in
Fractions , while a trip to the store turns into a problem of
Money . Finally, she is left painstakingly calculating how many minutes of "math madness" will be in her life now that she is a "mathematical lunatic." Her sister asks her what her problem is, and she responds, "60 minutes times 24 hours times 365 days." Finally, she collapses on her bed, and dreams that she is trapped in a
Blackboard -room covered in math problems. Armed with only a piece of chalk, she must escape-and she manages to do just that by breaking the chalk in half, because "two halves make a whole." She escapes through this "whole", and awakens the next morning with the ability to solve any problem. Her curse is broken...until the next day, when her science teacher mentions that in life, everything can be viewed as an experiment...
The book is full of actual math problems (and some rather unrelated questions, such as "What does this inkblot look like?"). Readers can try to solve the problems and check their answers, which are located on the back cover of the book.
As the book's last line suggests, a sequel (''
Science Verse '') was later released.
The book was critically acclaimed, winning a number of awards and accolades, including
Maine 's Student Book Award, the
Texas Bluebonnet Award, and
New Hampshire 's The Great Stone Face Book Award.
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