The 14 Fibs of Gregory K.

Gr 4–6—Eleven-year-old Gregory K.'s parents, older brother, and younger sister love math and talking about it, but Gregory hates it. All he wants to do is write, spend time with his friend Kelly, and eat pie. When it turns out that Kelly is moving over the summer and that she wants him to join her at Author's Camp, Gregory lurches from one misstep to another as he tries but fails to ask for permission to go to the camp. And in a desperate effort to keep from having to go to math camp instead, he volunteers for the City Math contest, which his brother has won multiple times. Along the way Gregory lies to his parents and his math teacher about loving math, and lies to Kelly about having gotten permission to go to camp, until he figures out a solution that involves poetry, Fibonacci, and telling the truth. Gregory is a reasonably sympathetic, realistic kid who keeps convincing himself that he has things under control even as they slide toward disaster. This lighthearted look at the relationship between poetry and math is fun in places, but the sometimes forced math humor and the somewhat stilted dialogue and narrative style will limit the book's audience.—Sue Giffard, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, New York City