All of the Above, by Shelley Pearsall

Mr. Collins challenges his seventh grade math students to stay after school to build the world's largest tetrahedron and earn a world record. Four students alternate voices to tell what happens next and through the telling their individual stories emerge as well as their growing sense of teamwork and purpose. When vandals wreck their first attempt, the community rallies to help them. Mr. Collins sprinkles math facts and questions throughout like, "Each level of a tetrahedron increases by a factor of four." In order to beat the existing record, they must make four times as many pieces. Marcel's dad owns a barbecue place, and recipes for spicy barbecue sauce are also interspersed throughout the story. I expected to enjoy this book because it had a math theme, but was delighted to find it was a story with much greater depth because of the characters and their interactions.

Grades 5-8