The Book
Bio
Reviews
Solutions
News
Connect
Emails
Typo Sleuth
Extras
Reviews

November 2010 New York Times review

Read reviews on Barnes&Noble.com and Amazon.com - or create your own review!

For some press on Hot X: Algebra Exposed, click here!

Click here for reviews of Math Doesn't Suck and Kiss My Math!

"Every teenager hopes to have the 'cool teacher' ... the teacher with a sense of style, a sense of humor and a sensitivity to the unique needs of the adolescent learner.

Danica McKellar has become 'the cool teacher' for a generation of American girls. Her ability to present complex mathematical concepts in an understandable and enjoyable way has enabled countless girls to improve their academic skills and enhance their competence and confidence in the classroom. She speaks 'the language of math' using 'the language of teens.'

In Danica's latest book, HOT X: ALGEBRA EXPOSED, she provides struggling students with a GPS that tells them where they are going and where they've been. HOT X can take a student from 'UGH !! I Hate It!!' to 'A-HA !! I get it.'"
- Richard D. Lavoie, author, THE MOTIVATION BREAKTHROUGH and IT'S SO MUCH WORK TO BE YOUR FRIEND, also a hit PBS show

"Danica McKellar has a message for girls: Cute and smart is better than cute and dumb."
- Associated Press

"While Danica McKellar's acting career is widely known, her talents as a gifted and successful educator and bestselling author are equally impressive. She knows how to 'speak' math to kids in their own language.

Hot X: Algebra Exposed is a welcome addition to her new-found career as mathematics popularizer. Her enthusiasm and style give kids a reason to look forward to math class. And it's a great refresher for adults who just didn't 'get it' in school."
- Ira Flatow, Host, NPR's Science Friday

"Danica McKellar is a great teacher! She's warm and funny, and best of all, she explains algebra so clearly. (Upon receiving this book,) my wife and I immediately ordered her two earlier books for our daughters...Students will feel like she's right by their side, helping them solve for x - and get over their ex - at the same time."
- Steven Strogatz, New York Times columnist, author of SYNC, and professor of mathematics, Cornell University

"In my 20+ years as a math teacher, rarely have I seen a book that makes mathematics so clear and fun! I highly recommend Danica McKellar's new book, Hot X: Algebra Exposed, for perplexed students and puzzled algebra teachers looking for a way to engage today's students with fresh, entertaining lesson plans."
- Dennis Van Roekel, president, National Education Association

Longer Reviews

New York Times:
Aimed at teenage girls, "Hot X" is a cross between a math class and a slumber party, and a perky, self-affirming slumber party at that: interspersed among the math are anecdotes about boys and testimonials about struggles and triumphs with math. Beginning with the cover, which looks more like Cosmopolitan magazine than a math book, Ms. McKellar exhorts her readers to be smart and confident...

"Hot X" follows her other pre-algebra books, "Math Doesn't Suck" and "Kiss My Math," which took a similarly irreverent tone. Even for someone who is not a teenage girl (me), it's a fun read. But the underlying pedagogy is traditional. She covers greatest common factors and least common multiples. She presents the FOIL (an acronym for first, outer, inner, last) procedure of multiplying binomials, the same as I learned about 30 years ago.

To Ms. McKellar, the deficiency of math teaching is not the curriculum, but the presentation. "Hot X," she says, "is math repackaged, totally."

...I found myself wishing that Ms. McKellar, who makes math relevant without dumbing it down, would cover the rest of the high school math curriculum.

Click here for entire review

Booklist:
As far as math goes, McKellar knows her stuff. With two girl-centric, best-selling titles under her belt (Math Doesn't Suck, 2008, and Kiss My Math, 2009) and a degree in mathematics from UCLA, it almost easy to forget that she was Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years. Facing down a 400-page book devoted to algebra could give even math whizzes pause, but McKellar makes it work, taking the textbook-meets-Seventeen approach by mixing the explanations and equations with boy talk, quizzes, and testimonials from successful women. While a tutor might use [Hot X: Algebra Exposed] as a teaching aid, teen girls will want to explore it on their own. Navigation is easy; students are encouraged to hop from chapter to chapter as their homework demands. The breakdown of equations is effective and certainly unconventional-explaining functions in terms of sausage factories, for example, or exponents in terms of whip-bearing female executives (makes sense in the book, promise)-and while McKellar keeps her focus on how to solve math problems, her approach is both readable and even entertaining.
—Courtney Jones, Booklist, American Library Association

Read Now Sleep Later:
I read Danica McKellar's first two books, Math Doesn't Suck and Kiss My Math. I love math, and Winnie Cooper. When I found out she was signing at Vroman's in Pasadena I was even more thrilled about her new book!
Click here for entire review.

Cape Cod Times:
I know for a fact that they did not have math books like this when I was a kid. If they had existed, I might have done a whole lot better in school...
Click here for entire review.

Asbury Park Press:
...This book is no joke. It's the sequel to "Math Doesn't Suck" and "Kiss My Math." The formulas suddenly make sense - even the dreaded quadratic equation - and certainly McKellar provides plenty of eye-candy on the dust jacket.
Click here for entire review.

Books for Kids Blog:
Danica McKellar's latest book in her anti-math anxiety series, Hot X: Algebra Exposed, is just in time to save the day.
Click here for entire review.

Celebrity Baby Scoop:
...Throughout all the wonderful teachings, Danica keeps it funky with quick tidbits on the side, cute cartoons and keeps it very reader-friendly....
Click here for entire review.

Danica McKellar
Press

November 2010

The New York Times - Book/Education page

Here's a partial list of the press surrounding the August 3rd, 2010 release of Hot X: Algebra Exposed. Please note that Danica will be going "offline" for September, since that is when her baby is due!

For Press surrounding the August 2008 release of Kiss My Math, click here!

For Press surrounding the August 2007 release of Math Doesn't Suck, click here!

Pregnancy Magazine - cover story

People Magazine

USA Today

TV Guide

August 2010

August 6 - Danica is a guest on NPR's Science Friday

August 3 - Danica appears on NBC's The Today Show

American Profile Magazine - featured story

For reviews, click here!

Danica McKellar
Buy the Book Danica Mckellar Danica McKellar on Twitter Danica McKellar on Facebook Danica McKellar on YouTube Pinterest Copyright © 2008 - 2024 Danica McKellar.
Photo by Michael Grecco. Front jacket design by Mike Verta.
Website Design by Jefferson Rabb.

McKellar Math