Talia's Codebook for Mathletes

by Marissa Moss, Marissa Moss (Illustrator)

Overview

Can math-loving Talia crack the code of being cool in middle school? Marissa Moss, creator of the internationally best-selling Amelia’s Notebook series, makes a welcome, STEM-oriented return to the comics diary form.

Talia loves math puzzles and code-breaking, but the new social rules of middle school have her stumped. Her best friend, Dash, is now embarrassed to be best friends with a girl, so he only wants to hang out with Talia outside of school. And although Talia is excited to make the math team, the strict team captain doubts her abilities . . . just because she’s a girl. But Talia has a great idea: she’ll start her own all-girls math team! As the first competition approaches, Talia is determined to bring her fledgling team to victory, get her best friend back, and break the social code of preteen life. In the spirit of her best-selling Amelia’s Notebook series, Marissa Moss brings Talia’s adventures to life through charming text, illustrations, doodles, graphs, and puzzles. This delightful new series is for all math-lovers, doodlers, and anyone who has ever had to navigate the unfamiliar conventions of a new school.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536218022
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	06/13/2023
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Marissa Moss is an award-winning author-illustrator who has written more than seventy children’s books, from picture books to middle-grade and young adult historical novels. She’s best known for the Amelia’s Notebook series, which has sold 6 million copies, been translated into several languages, and helped start the journal format craze in children’s books. Marissa Moss lives in California.

Read an Excerpt

This journal belongs to: Talia Zargari

I’m starting this notebook to help me figure out middle school. Getting things out of my head and onto the page always helps me think—or at least it’s fun to do. Problems seem smaller once you can draw them. And 6th grade is full of problems!

1
Middle school is not what I expected.
   Sixth grade was supposed to be great—a new, big school, getting a locker, having real science classes and labs instead of just a handout on caterpillars becoming butterflies. The end of being a little kid!

Elementary School: How it is

MATH
Baby problems, like 1 + 1 = 2.
Or worse, memorizing the times tables—again!

SCIENCE
Plant a seed.
Wait. Wait.
Wait. Wait.
Finally, a sprout!

ENGLISH
Read a book.
Sometimes good, sometimes boring.
 
Middle School: How it is

MATH
Complicated, challenging problems—finally more math fun for me.

SCIENCE
Build a robot.

ENGLISH
Write . . . and publish your own story!
 
   Some of that stuff is true, but there are other things about 6th grade that aren’t so great. One thing I didn’t expect at all.
 
2
The things you don’t worry about can turn out to be the worst things of all.
   My (maybe) best friend
   Dash!
   For the first couple of weeks of middle school, everything was fine with us, just the way it should be. Dash was in most of my classes, so I always had someone to sit with.
   Then this happened:
   I’m sorry, we can’t be friends anymore.
   Everyone teases me. They say you’re my girlfriend.
   First I was shocked. Then I got mad.
 
   What do you care what “they” say? And who are they anyway?
 
   So what?!
 
   I knew I shouldn’t yell. I mean, who wants to be friends with someone who screams at you? But I couldn’t stop myself.
 
   We can be secret friends—at home, not in school.
 
   That could be cool.
   NO!!!
 
   That’s terrible!
   It felt like Dash was ashamed of me, that I embarrassed him in front of his other friends. And the way I was screaming, I was pretty embarrassing. Luckily we were walking home, far from other people. I could see Dash was miserable. But I was even more miserable.
   I told him that he was talking the way a grown-up does when they try to convince their kid something awful is really neat, like getting a shot or going to the dentist.
   Calling something rotten a secret doesn’t turn it into something cool. And this was definitely NOT cool.
   I started imagining lunch all by myself, not having an instant partner in our shared classes, not walking in the hallways together.
   I was deep in imagined misery, not even noticing where I was walking, when Dash grabbed my arm.
 
   Please! I know you’re upset, but can we try it my way for a while, just so I have time to show the guys I’m OK, like a regular guy?
   A regular guy? Since when do you want to be regular?
   Please!
   If you really are my friend . . .
   Just give me a chance, Talia.
   We can still walk to school together until we get to Echo Park. After that, we should walk on opposite sides of the street.
   I’m not trying to be popular.
   I just want things to be easier.
   Middle school is tricky.

   He’s right about that! And he was making it even trickier. I needed my best friend around more than ever.
   It was our first big fight since 2nd grade, when I accidentally broke his new Nerf gun and hid it in his closet because I was too embarrassed to admit what I’d done.
 
   Have you seen my Nerf gun?
   Me?
   Nope, no way.

   I was so ashamed, I finally had to tell him.
   This seemed a lot bigger.
 
3
Dash was desperate.
   All week, I couldn’t stop thinking about what Dash had said . . . and how he had looked.
   The Dash Spectrum

happy dash sad dash
 
normal dash mad dash
 
desperate dash

Editorial Reviews

05/01/2023

In this winning interactive comics diary by Moss (the Amelia series), sixth grader Talia Zargari, portrayed with tan skin, records her daily observations and personal thought experiments to cope with the social pitfalls of middle school. Upset by teasing from his male classmates about them being boyfriend-girlfriend, Talia’s best friend Dash, who reads as Black, tells her they can’t be friends anymore. Devastated, STEM-focused Talia turns her sights to making it onto her school’s mathletes team. She’s delighted when both she and Dash make the lineup and hopes spending time together will help them reconcile. But as the only girl on the team, Talia faces gendered discrimination from their captain, prompting her to form her own all-girl mathletes squad. Moss successfully integrates an array of codes, doodles, and puzzles among Talia’s insightful and often humorous deductions about how “middle school isn’t about learning stuff from teachers.... It’s really about learning how to get along with other people.” Talia is an appealing heroine who thrives despite her challenges and missteps, and whose willingness to learn—coupled with her frustrations around growing up and changing dynamics—paints an organic portrait of one irrepressible tween’s middle school experience. Ages 8–12. (June)

Publishers Weekly

Shows with authenticity how Talia has to manage complex feelings around growing up, recognizing her own mistakes, and making room for others. . . Talia’s love of code-breaking and scavenger hunts is incorporated through fun puzzles for readers to solve. Fans of Moss’ Amelia’s Notebooks series will feel at home with the engagingly illustrated text and tips for navigating social situations. . . . A fun, interactive guide to forging your own path in middle school.
—Kirkus Reviews

A delightful novel sure to be a hit with readers wishing to become mathematicians or even scientists. With a narrative infused with colorful illustrations, codes, jokes, and observations, this is a fantastic start to a new series.
—School Library Journal

Moss successfully integrates an array of codes, doodles, and puzzles among Talia’s insightful and often humorous deductions. . . Talia is an appealing heroine who thrives despite her challenges and missteps, and whose willingness to learn—coupled with her frustrations around growing up and changing dynamics—paints an organic portrait of one irrepressible tween’s middle school experience.
—Publishers Weekly

In this delightful book, author/illustrator Marissa Moss tells the story of math-loving Talia using her signature format that imitates a hand-written notebook with full color artwork on every page. . . math and codes are interwoven seamlessly into the text. . . the main draw for readers will be Talia herself, as her struggles with friendship and fitting in are so relatable.
—School Library Connection

From the Publisher

05/01/2023

Gr 5–7—From the creator of the classic "Amelia's Notebook" series comes a new comics diary adventure. Talia has high hopes for middle school; she's smart, has good friends, has always been successful in school, and is ready for this new adventure. That is until her best friend, Dash, informs her that they can't really be friends anymore. Talia is confused and disappointed when Dash shares that it isn't cool for middle school boys to be friends with girls. To help get over her disappointment with a less-than-stellar start to middle school, Talia decides to start a journal filled with her observations, plans, and thoughts. When Talia finds out that Dash has joined the Mathletes team, she figures she can join him, and then they can still be friends. It turns out that Talia is the only girl on the team, and the boys aren't too happy with her joining them. So, Talia decides to form an all-girls Mathletes team and show the boys that she is just as smart as they are. Through this new adventure, Talia learns that, while middle school is not what she thought it would be, it's still a great place to be. VERDICT A delightful novel sure to be a hit with readers wishing to become mathematicians or even scientists. With a narrative infused with colorful illustrations, codes, jokes, and observations, this is a fantastic start to a new series.—Charla Hollingsworth

School Library Journal

2023-03-29
Talia Zargari’s notebook helps her deal with the new challenges of sixth grade.

A few weeks into the school year, Dash, Talia’s neighbor and longtime best friend, tells her they can’t be friends anymore. Desperate to fit in, Dash succumbs to peer pressure and teasing from other boys. Hoping to be able to stay close to Dash through their shared love of math, Talia, whose mom is a computer programmer, is excited to join him on the mathlete team. As the only girl, Talia experiences discrimination from the team captain, however, so she decides to start a new, girls-only team. The Mathlete Mermaids show the boys’ team up by winning their first competition. But there is still work to be done in including girls in STEM, and the Mermaids must prove themselves in ways boys don’t. The book shows with authenticity how Talia has to manage complex feelings around growing up, recognizing her own mistakes, and making room for others, particularly when teammate Leticia, a skilled leader, steps in as Mermaids team captain. Talia’s love of code-breaking and scavenger hunts is incorporated through fun puzzles for readers to solve. Fans of Moss’ Amelia’s Notebooks series will feel at home with the engagingly illustrated text and tips for navigating social situations. Talia has tan skin and curly black hair; Dash reads Black, and background characters are diverse in appearance.

A fun, interactive guide to forging your own path in middle school. (author’s note) (Illustrated fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews