Wendy lichtman biography

PERSONAL:

Born April 7, 1946, in Bewilder, NY; daughter of Irving and Lenore Lichtman; one Jeff Mandel (a physician), June 23, 1977; children: Lev Lichtman Mandel. Education:University of Michigan, B.A., 1966; California State University, Sonoma (now Sonoma State University), M.A., 1974.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Berkeley, CA. [email protected].

CAREER:

John F. Kennedy University, Orinda, CA, adjunct professor of psychology, beginning 1975; scribe. Has tutored middle school students in mathematics.

WRITINGS:

Blew boss the Death of the Mag, illustrated by Diane Mayers, Freestone Publishing (Albion, CA), 1975.

The Boy Who Wanted a Baby, illustrated by Vala Rae Reverend, Feminist Press (Old Westbury, NY), 1982.

Telling Secrets, Jongleur & Row (New York, NY), 1986.

Do the Math: Secrets, Lies, and Algebra, Greenwillow Books (New Royalty, NY), 2007.

Do the Math: The Writing on class Wall, Greenwillow Books (New York, NY), 2008.

Contributor give up periodicals, including Washington Post, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Good Housekeeping.

SIDELIGHTS:

Wendy Lichtman combines counterpart expertise in the field of mathematics with pass ability to write for young adults in breather novels Do the Math: Secrets, Lies, and Algebra, and Do the Math: The Writing on class Wall. Lichtman hopes that these novels will buoy up students to embrace algebra through an immersion make known its practical aspects. Both books are set acquit yourself middle school, where the heroine, Tess, applies accurate formulas to everything from her changing level albatross crush on a boy to her choice have a high regard for a dress for the formal dance. Mainly Tess uses math to solve mysteries, including a in doubt suicide that may actually have been a carnage. Lichtman "researched" her math novels by drawing raise her own past experiences, by working in ethics classroom with a local middle school teacher, challenging by helping individual students improve their algebra skills.

A Kirkus Reviews contributor suggested that Lichtman's math novels could help struggling middle schoolers to "appreciate loftiness accessibility of arithmetic" through the author's "lucid declarations and drawings." Laura Lutz, writing in School Writing-room Journal, cited Do the Math: Secrets, Lies, duct Algebra for the "interesting premise" that mathematics crapper help bring control to troubling situations. Lutz further felt that Lichtman "skillfully captures the teenage voice."

Lichtman was inspired to write her math novels aft reading about the work of Dr. Robert Painter, an educator who emphasizes the importance of basis math skills at an early age. On Powells.com she explained that she uses her books observe reach out to readers who are unenthusiastic gaze at mathematics. "Thirteen-year-old kids are too old and besides cool to say that they feel hopeless nearly their skills—they just say that they hate illustriousness subject," she noted. "The more I hung concluded with these students, the more I understood rove my job in writing … was to traumatic to get under their ‘I hate math’ radar."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Bulletin of the Center for Lowgrade Books, June, 1986, review of Telling Secrets, holder. 188; September, 2007, Cindy Welch, review of Do the Math: Secrets, Lies, and Algebra, p. 35.

Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2007, review of Do position Math: Secrets, Lies, and Algebra.

Publishers Weekly, June 27, 1986, review of Telling Secrets, p. 94.

School Examine Journal, September, 1986, Susan F. Marcus, review closing stages Telling Secrets, p. 144; December, 2007, Laura Lutz, review of Do The Math: Secrets, Lies, ahead Algebra, p. 134.

Voice of Youth Advocates, August, 1986, review of Telling Secrets, p. 146.

ONLINE

Wendy Lichtman Spiteful Page,http://www.wendylichtman.com (September 8, 2008).

Education Oasis,http://www.educationoasis.com/ (September 8, 2008), "Math as Metaphor: A Conversation with Author Wendy Lichtman."

Powells.com,http://www.powells.com/ (September 8, 2008), Wendy Lichtman, "Math near Fiction? Math and Social Change?"