The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl

My daughter who is an avid reader And never puts a book down, put this down. She got 70 pages in and said "I have anxiety I can't keep reading this." I asked her to write down why so I could post it in a review. AGAIN, SHE NEVER PUTS A BOOK DOWN! She wrote: " I don't like this book because it gives me anxiety. Lucy is hiding her smartness by trying to get every answer on a test wrong. Lucas copies from her. They both get in trouble. She makes being smart seem bad. And gets in touble for making wrong choices when she doesn't have to." The book also mentioned two mom's, undressing people with your eyes and one kid writes in to a blog for "Lightning girl" saying they want to make babies with her. My daughter's 12 and she even came to me thinking there were weird and unnecessary. Also remember this is only 70 pages in out of 293. Asked Amazon for a refund. I won't be supporting such terrible writing.

When Lucy was eight years old, she was struck by lightning while holding on to a metal fence. As a result, she has acquired savant syndrome; Lucy can not only tackle any mathematical problem but she can also see math in colors and remembers every set of numbers she hears or sees. It is no surprise that Pi is favorite number (and she can recite it to the 314th decimal place).Having this rare condition is not without its drawbacks. Lucy has obsessive compulsive tendencies, no offline friends, and hasn’t left the apartment she shared with her Nana for 32 days. While Lucy wants to begin college, Nana proposes an alternate plan. Go to middle school for at least 1 year. Make 1 friend. Join 1 activity. Read 1 book that is not math related. Nana wins.Lucy accomplishes her first goal quickly. On her first bus ride to school, she becomes friends with socially conscious Windy. But adjusting to middle school is still tough especially because of Lucy’s constant need to sanitize, her repetitive sitting behavior, and her desire to keep her giftedness hidden from her peers including Windy. A group service project with Windy and budding photographer Levi gives Lucy the opportunity to use her math genius for a good cause-helping dogs gets adopted at a local shelter. At the shelter, Lucy meets Cutie Pi, a beagle mix (Yes, you heard it, a beagle!) with a lightning bolt spot on its back and is determined to find him a home. Being a dog mom, seeing Lucy’s affection for Pi was heartwarming. Her relationship with Pi was one of my favorite parts of the story.The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl is a touching and engaging story about fitting in, finding yourself and most of all, friendship. Lucy soon learns that all things are not easy to calculate. As a reader, I calculate a few important lessons from this must read middle grade novel.-Sometimes numbers aren’t all that matter.-No problem is unsolvable.-If you have a couple of friends who accept you for who you are, you are pretty lucky.

I bought this book for my 11-year-old granddaughter. She is a voracious reader, and enjoyed this book so much she read it at one sitting.Then her mother opened it up and also read it at one sitting.They told me I needed to read it. I started it late one evening, could not put it down, and finally finished it at 1:43 a.m.This author has written other books, but this was her best novel - about a girl who had been struck with lightning and became a mathematical genius with quirks. The book showed us how she managed to find friends and survive middle school in spite of all that. This is an excellent book for any child facing problems connecting with peers!

The good: my niece and I appreciated reading this together because the perspective of the main character is unique, and shares some similarities with my niece in their love of math.The bad: the reading level of the book seemed quite low compared to many of the other books my 10-year-old niece is currently reading, and the plotline wasn't especially engaging due to some predictable moves and a few troupes here and there. But she seemed to enjoy it and giggled quite a bit.My big concern with the book is that it could have potentially alienated my nieces love for the mathematical world thanks to painting the main character as a freak of sorts, instead of humanizing her in a way that is more relatable to the mainstream. There were some predictable narratives that I should have accounted for when making the decision to buy the book, that reinforced the idea that a girl being good at math was something to hide and be ashamed of. Clearly the book doesn't end that way, but having 9/10 of the book dedicated to that narrative definitely reinforced society's views on this matter.It was also unfortunate that the main character had a complex around hand sanitizer and germs, which aligned itself poorly to the timing of the global pandemic. Kids are already scared enough as it is, and my niece and I had to do a lot of talking about the line of being healthily concerned and obsessive. In some ways, it did trigger even more neuroses and anxiety around this issue for her.If you have a math loving kid in your life and are considering this book for them, I might suggest finding another outlet for them instead.

The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl by Stacy McAnulty published in 2018.This middle grade novel is about Lucy, a 12 year old girl who, when struck by lightning, develops an incredible ability in mathematics. After a period of home schooling, her grandmother/guardian decides that attending a regular school will help Lucy develop social skills.I don’t think The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl is a good middle grade novel, I think it’s a good novel, which just happens to have children as its characters. The categorisation of novel by age group started developing in earnest in the 1960s, so that today there’s a feeling that people have to read novels featuring characters who are like themselves. That’s alright, except for the fact that novels are also useful in finding out about people who are not like themselves. I am not a 12 year old girl with social anxiety and incredible abilities in maths. I am a man in his fifties who has never felt much of an affinity with maths - but that doesn’t mean I can’t find The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl interesting.One of the things that Lucy learns during her time at school is that although she might feel like the only freak in the world, other people have their own concerns and are not really taking much notice of you. That’s what books can provide - an insight into things other than ourselves.So maths - I have enough ability to muddle along, but have never been something very comfortable with. The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl was an education for me, a window into the world of maths. I was good at English at school, a subject which I believed was an altogether vaguer affair. But what did I know. Lucy loves the constant known as pi - a number which you get in dividing a circle’s circumference by its diameter. This simple calculation comes out as a number that goes on forever, beginning 3.14159…. with as many numbers after that as you want. Pi is constant, applying to any circle of any size. But you can never say precisely what pi is, because you can never get to the end of it. There is something fundamentally dependable about Lucy’s favourite bit of maths, something that always remains the same. But there is also an unknowable quality about it. I imagined there was a big difference between the precise world of maths and the uncertainties of life which people write about in stories. That, however is not really true. Maths and more artistic pursuits are not so far apart after all.The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl is a good novel for school children. It will teach them about maths and show how it can be used to solve real world problems that will mean something to them - like boosting the chances of adoption of dogs at a dog shelter. There are also a few lessons about dealing with difficult social situations. Beyond that, The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl is, as I say, a good novel. It says something about life that is relevant generally.

This is the best book i have ever read and i cried when they were taking Pi to be put down- even on the second time reading. It is one of those books that gets you every time. Phenomenal. I asked my mum to search for a sequel but she couldn't find one. We NeEd A sEqUeL!¡!¡!¡

AMAZING. I am a ten year old girl who loves reading and I found this book very enjoying to read. It is also quite a long book and there is lots to read. I cried when they got to the animal control but apart from that the book was great. I reccomend buying a sample of the book before you buy he full book though because it is the type of pook that some people would find extremely boring and for other people it would be great.Part two wanted!!!!!

Just started this book. Seems great so far. Hard to put down. Easy to understand. Would recommend. Speedy delivery.

I'm 13 and I did enjoy the book but found it a little boring in places. Was expecting her to do more with her special skills.