Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School is the first book in the Sideways Arithmetic series, and the second book in the Wayside School series overall. It was written by Louis Sachar and published by Scholastic in the United States in 1989, later to be published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury in 2004.
Synopsis[]
Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School returns to the fictional Wayside School setting, when a new kid named Sue is joining the class. She had read Sideways Stories from Wayside School, and wanted to come to Wayside in hopes that she could eat ice cream, draw pictures, and watch movies about turtles. However, what she quickly learns is that the sideways arithmetic taught at Wayside School is a lot harder than she could've imagined.
Unlike the books in the main series, this book is primarily focused on logic puzzles, such as sideways arithmetic, which utilizes the addition of words where each letter represents a number, or various true/false quizzes where the answers all relate to one another. The story has very little focus in Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School, with the main draw of the book being the logic puzzles.
Characters[]
Since the Wayside School series features so many characters, a full list can be seen here.
Chapters[]
| Title | Illustration | Summary | No. |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Spelling" | 
|
Sue is baffled by Wayside School's unusual arithmetic. | 1 |
| "Numbers" | 
|
When Sue has had enough of Wayside School's sideways arithmetic, she tries to teach the class how to add with numbers. | 2 |
| "Pronouns" | 
|
Mrs. Jewls teaches Sue the basics of arithmetic: pronouns. | 3 |
| "Paragraphs" | 
|
The readers are given a series of paragraphs: multiplication problems solved with sideways arithmetic. | 4 |
| "Recess" | 
|
The students debate between playing freeze tag and basketball during recess. | 5 |
| "Science, Geography, Etc." | 
|
Mrs. Jewls struggles with grading a series of tests from earlier in the year. | 6 |
| "Lunch" | 
|
A few problems about Miss Mush and Mr. Pepperadder are given. | 7 |
| "True or False" | 
|
A sample of Mrs. Jewls's true or false tests is given. | 8 |
| "After School" | 
|
Joy and Sue go home after struggling in class. | 9 |
Reception[]
At the time of writing, Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School holds a 3.9/5 rating on Goodreads.
Trivia[]
- While Sue is introduced in this book, she never appears in the main series, and in "Why the Children Decided They Had to Get Rid of Mrs. Drazil," it's stated there are only 28 students in Mrs. Jewls's class.