Horn Book (Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)

Report of a math attack, Second and Main. / They say there's a kid with a scrambled-up brain.

ALA Booklist (Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 CST 2009)

In this picture book, a girl tells about her alarming reaction when her teacher asks, "What's seven times ten?" Suddenly, a brainstorm sends volleys of numbers flying out of the girl's head and whizzing around the room. Sent to the nurse, who diagnoses "a case of arithmetic strain," the girl is calm until she again utters the words "seven times ten," unleashing the numeric demons once more. The police, a television news crew, and the National Guard arrive, but nothing helps until her brain computes the answer at last. Told in well-crafted rhymed couplets, the story unfolds at a quick pace. The illustrations, high-energy collages, combine printed and photographic elements with painted ones. The creative juxtaposition of different textures and off-kilter picture components gives a vivid sense of the story's chaotic events. Absurd and amusing.

Kirkus Reviews

In a departure from her collections of children's poetry ( Halloween Hoots and Howls , illustrated by JoAnn Adinolfi, 1999, etc.), Horton's latest, while it still rhymes, tells the story of a young girl suffering from a math attack. It all happens when Miss Glass asked her seven times ten: Numbers fly out of the girl's head, bouncing off objects and hitting people. The nurse is no help, nor is a police officer—in fact, each time she recounts her plight, the numbers again pour out. The tale picks up momentum as the numbers wreak havoc in the town, but quickly slides into repetitiousness, with neither logic nor clever arithmetic games to give it a framework. While most of the couplets scan well, there are a few rhymes that just don't work. Brooker's artwork mixes painting with collage, resulting in busily full illustrations that are rich in textures. Ultimately, this falls far short of Jon Sczieska and Lane Smith's masterful Math Curse (1995). With its tiresome repetition and lack of utility as a lesson springboard in classrooms, this is one attack to avoid. (Picture book. 5-9)

School Library Journal (Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2009)

Gr 1-3 When one more arithmetic lesson proves the last straw for a numerically exhausted child, leading to a full-blown math attack, the whole town is in peril. Numbers fly out of her head, tangling with arithmetic symbols and situations everywhere. They cause chaos with the clock on the town hall and the prices in the supermarket, knock civil servants down, and pelt the National Guard in helicopters that have been sent to rescue the town. It all begins when Miss Glass asks the answer to seven times ten. "I was thinking so hard all my circuits were loaded./Then all of a sudden, my brain just exploded." Finally, the girl's mental gears begin to grind and the answer, "70!," lights up the sky. The rhyming text is well cadenced, with carefully chosen words that flow easily. Rich paint and collage illustrations combine textures and colors with numbers spilling over the pages. Throughout, both pictures and verse work seamlessly to produce a humorous approach to one of life's basic obstacles for many children: learning the multiplication tables. This book could create a wonderful break during math class or an amusing storytime read-aloud. Mary Hazelton, Elementary Schools in Warren & Waldoboro, ME

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

A hopelessly perplexed student sends her school and community into chaos when she's stumped by a simple multiplication question. Asked “what's seven times ten?” her brain “just exploded,” causing numerals to spew from the top of her head. “Everywhere, numbers were tumbling down—/ On the school yard and houses and streets of the town./ They halted the traffic; horns started blaring./ Dogs began barking and townsfolk stood staring.” The “girl-befuddled-by-math” stereotype is in full play, though it may be overlooked given Brooker's (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Someday When My Cat Can Talk) engaging mixed media collage (photographs of stocked shelves and fresh produce fill a scene in which renegade numbers wreak havoc in the supermarket). Horton's (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Halloween Hoots and Howls) narrative bounces along in fairly predictable rhymes until the girl's gray matter kicks in (“That's when I heard it—a strange whirring sound/ As gears in my head started spinning around”). Just when it looks like she's back on track, a new math problem stumps her all over again. Not an encouraging read for those intimidated by the subject, but the high-energy artwork will entertain. Ages 5–9. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Mar.)