This book was so interesting and so fun to read. It took me a while to get into it because I had to get used to the writer's specific style,but once I did, I really got into the story. It's a story of feeling like an outsider, of feeling like you just don't belong anywhere. I don't think you have to be of mixed racial descent to understand just what that feels like. Of course, if you are of a mixed family background, it might help you to appreciate the story even more.

One of the standout parts of the book relies heavily on the cultural aspects. I love, love, loved reading the pot luck dinner scenes before Patty actually leaves for math camp for the summer. She describes each of the families who attend the dinners, and just what goes on at these get-togethers. It really provides a great insight into how she doesn't fit in with the Asian part of her heritage, but it also provides a great deal of humor. These dinners are basically excuses for parents to get together and attempt to convince the other parents there that their child is the best. The kids sit in the other room, trying to figure out just who they are going to be compared to until the next pot luck dinner. It's such a funny scene.

One other aspect I really enjoyed, something that really helped define Patty's character for me, was her theorems. Patty's in geometry when the book begins, and if you've taken a geometry class before, you should know that proofs are a big part of the curriculum. It involves making a statement, then using logical facts and given rules to prove that statement, creating a theorem. Patty does these, without the math, throughout the novel, showing that, as much as she may deny it, she does understand the math classes she takes. She fights against being good in math, forcing herself to do the incorrect work in class, not wanting to fit the stereotype that Asian-American kids are good at arithmetic. Of course, it could also be because her mom is an accountant. It's just one of the ways she rebels against the mold the people around her try to put her in, so it makes the little theorems she sprinkles around the pages a lot of fun.

This isn't a book I would buy, because it isn't something I feel I could read over and over again, but it is worth checking out from the library or borrowing from a friend. Even if you don't love it, chances are you will find the humor entertaining.