Reviews for Life of fred: beginning algebra

The average rating for Life of fred: beginning algebra based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-07-10 00:00:00 Molly Reed You know what? I wish I could give Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra a higher rating. I do. The book's format is appealing, the characters and situations are fun, and the author's playful commentary gives one the impression that math is not trying to be intimidating.... It makes me picture mathematics as one of those 6-and-a-half-foot tall men who weigh 350 pounds (nearly all muscle) and go through life trying not to scare people. But just as very large men tend to intimidate no matter how soft spoken they are, so math can't totally convince the casual bystander that it means no harm. Stanley F. Schmidt mediates on math's behalf with all his effort, but he is well acquainted with math and therefore can't see the subject through the eyes of someone who suspects math is about to break some heads. Stanley F. Schmidt is the wife of the very large man. He is biased. Positives first. I don't have a single clue why a 5 year old named Fred is teaching mathematics at a university, but that's what's happening in this book. He is some sort of omni-prodigy, an expert at not only math but also literature, communication, and generally getting around in a world not designed for 5 year olds. Just about the only thing he doesn't understand is how girls are different. Fred plays poker with his academic friends and splits a pizza with them, paying his own way out of his teacher's earnings. WHAT IS THIS I DON'T EVEN. This is not the oddest part of this particular volume in the Life of Fred series. This book, my friends, is magical realism at its least self-conscious. Don't believe me? (Or maybe you do- I am making an assumption for the sake of dramatics. Just play along.) You don't believe me, do you?! Well, maybe you will believe me when I tell you that on the morning of Fred's 6th birthday the military drafts him and ships him to a base in Texas where people may be served 910-pound meatballs and recruits capriciously hack out a wall of their barracks so they can redecorate with a gigantic picture window and there seems to be only one country western song playing, ever. Now you believe me, don't you? ALL WHO PERSIST IN THEIR UNBELIEF SHALL TASTE MY WRATH. Magical realism is either really grand or poorly done. Fortunately Schmidt pulls it off. Believe it. This wacky little plot carries the book along as opportunities to perform acts of algebra pop up in allegedly everyday situations (if a hot dog has a diameter of 2 feet and a length of 3 feet, what is its volume and how much does it weigh?). I'm not sure the author really sells his claim that algebra has a use. The very nature of the book gives one the impression that algebra will be useful should one trip into an alternate universe in which people buy tickets to gain audiences with military superiors. In the world I live in, algebra NEVER comes up. I'm only trying to perfect my understanding of the subject because I learned to go through the motions of algebra to earn my GED and feel cheated by knowing nothing more than the quick-and-dirty method. WTF is algebra? What is this shiz about Xs and Ys, it's all a metaphor for sex education, isn't it? I require comprehension! Which is why I borrowed from the library Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra. Unfortunately it is time for the negatives. If I hadn't already known the basics of algebra this book would have done nothing but bewilder and anger me. Math is not my strong point. It is, in fact, my weak point. I would go so far as to say that math is my nemesis, a six-and-a-half-foot tall man who weighs 350 pounds (nearly all muscle) and keeps glaring at me from across the Starbucks as if he knows me and is waiting for his thirst for revenge to outweigh his common decency and fear of prison. And I'm like "wtf, I don't know that guy, let's get out of here." Except math is everywhere, according to Saturday afternoon public-service announcements, and there ain't no getting away from it. Math took Man to the moon. If you believe in that sort of thing. From the very beginning you can see the book is trying to be too clever when the traditional number line is replaced by an infinite number of roses, including negative numbers of roses, but shortly thereafter the author says you can't have fewer than zero moose. Roses are different from moose, the author claims as if the math n00b has no feelings. If you suck at math like I do, then you REALLY just need a straightforward number line in your head to call up when you need it. You don't need to be thinking about -5 roses while remembering apropos of nothing that moose only come in a set of non-negative integers. Too. Clever. Explanations are either brief, glossing over details that a student may not intuitively figure out, or convoluted, dragging in too MANY details at one time. I'm sure there are many who can learn from this book. But if you are like me and need to have your hand held as math instruction is dumbed down to the point of enraging those who keep declaring the decline of Western civilization, then this book just might make you pledge your vote to whichever presidential candidate promises to fight the War on Numbers. And win. My reason for checking this book out of the library: to have algebra explained to me. I have the how. I need the why. I still need the why. If I'd had to depend on this book while studying for the GED, I wouldn't have the how, either. P.S. The author is a Christian, and many of the characters in the book are Christian, but it's just a part of the world the author put together. Unless someone is the type to clutch pearls when they hear "Silent Night" sung at a Christmas party, it's no big deal. Especially when you have funny bits like this: [The military chaplain is preparing a sermon.] "I have to talk tomorrow about the ten young girls who are waiting at night to meet an important dignitary," the chaplain began. "Some of them had fresh batteries for their flashlights and some did not." (He was changing the story a bit, since when he had preached on that passage before, in its more original form, he had trouble explaining why ten virgins were waiting to meet a bridegroom at midnight.) I dare say that would be as hard to explain as algebra itself.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-12-31 00:00:00 Alexander Drinda Marlo returned to homeschooling after her diagnosis of CRPS. We made it through this book, together, at that time. We got no further, due to the progression of her illness. Time rolled on. I took 5 years of math during 4 years of high school. I took Algebra I & II, Geometry, Trigonometry, and Calculus. I have lost most of it, over time, though. Now everyone but me is in public middle school, high school, college, or graduate school. I finally have time to focus on improving myself and so I am relearning math. I went through this book again, to give myself a strong foundation as I carry onward through his series.