4.5 stars = I loved it! Would re-read.

This was fantastic! I loved how the author shows how gifted and skilled Very is at so many things while she struggles not only with math but also with insecurity and shame. Her community is both supportive and direct when they call her out. The whole story filled me with warmth and feelings of hope and possibility. Highly recommend!

Thie book was adorable and thoughtful read that goes beyond its lighthearted premise. While it humorously tackles struggling with math, it also explores deeper themes like burnout, privacy, gossip, and the ups and downs of friendship. The story delivers these lessons in a natural and relatable way, making them easy to absorb without feeling forced. Adding to its charm is the absolutely cute art style, which perfectly complements the book’s tone. A delightful read with both heart and humor.

Verity, aka Very, seems to have everything. She's popular, kind, and she's been elected class president twice already. She wants to be a politician, and she's already killing it with student council. So when the principal informs her that if she keeps failing math, she will have to resign, she is devastated. Everyone has something they are just bad at, right? She just needs to try more! But with tutoring and lots of help, something still isn't right.
For every kid who felt different, or less than, many find out their brains are just wired differently. Very is a relatable character and inspiring in her own way.

Very Bad at Math was a great addition to Hope Larson's already stellar lineup of childrens/young-teen graphic novels! I loved that there was a diverse group of characters and lessons to be learned-disguised within the fun storyline(s) and playful and approachable graphic artwork.

This was a very unique middle grade graphic novel that deals with dyscalculia, a learning disability that not many people are familiar with. It was handled with exceptional grace and will be an important read for a lot of kids.

Verity is used to being "simply the best" at everything that she does. She is the class president, knows everyone's name, is first clarinet, and does great in almost every subject. Math is the one hurdle that she cannot seem to overcome, no matter how hard she works at it. When she learns that she has to get her grades up or give up the presidency, she winds up in a special math pod with one of the few kids at her school who cannot stand her.

In Verity style, she overcomes the friendship issue by channeling a politician that she looks up to. But Verity can't solve her math problems by herself. Fortunately, she has an observant teacher who figures it out (a la Fish in a Tree and How to Find What You're Not Looking For). This is a wonderful story that helps bring dyscalculia into the light and lets kids see that they are not alone.

I love how this book handled different learning capabilities and how one bad grade doesn’t make you a bad person. Verity was the popular girl and tried too hard to be liked and felt that she had to hide that she was bad at math, so she had a lot of character growth.

3.5 Stars

This was a really great graphic novel with some really great themes about making change and being true to your identity. It follows Verity, or Very, as she becomes class president for the third year running. Things are going great until she's told she's failing math and may lose her spot on student council unless her grade improves.

Very is determined and hard working. She loves public policy and truly wants to enact change and help her classmates. It was quite interesting watching her struggle with being less than perfect, especially as a somewhat "public figure". In general, the themes and messages were quite well done, if a bit heavy handed for an adult reader. Additionally the artwork was great, and the story was as well. There was a lot going on in the story, but it never felt like too much, and all the plot points were woven together quite nicely by the end.

For me, as I mentioned, I found the themes and messaging to be a bit too heavy handed as an adult reader. That's why my personal rating is 3.5 stars. However, I would easily round up and would definitely recommend this book because it was a quick, well crafted, and all around great read!

A very cute book about navigating middle school friendships and learning how to ask for help. Very is the ideal student who has to learn that no one is perfect and sometimes we all need help from those around us.

This story was honestly just so freacking cute and bad ass, as someone who struggled with math my whole life I could understand verity’s frustration. I love that we got to the root of her problems and that even though you are almost good at everything you can have a small flaw that makes you feel little. The friend support was beautiful and that little boy Nate I couldn’t stand him, I’m glad he apologized at the end.

Fun short graphic novel about Verity “Very” Nelson, a frankly unbelievably popular and spectacular student in every way but one...she has diagnosed dyscalculia. Good for MG and younger HS students, particularly those struggling with a learning disorder. Verity's general excellent is pretty unbelievable, as are a few of the zanier almost cartoonish elements of her school, but for young people trying to have confidence despite various learning labels this should be a fun and satisfying read.

As someone who is also "Very Bad at Math" I so looked forward to this graphic novel and am delighted to have been able to receive it via digital ARC.
I read it on an iPad and the artwork was beautiful, bright, and full of emotion. The story itself was relatable and navigated the peaks and valleys of 8th grade the way I remember it (all these years later.) My only notes were that I was surprised that the characters were only in 8th grade, to me they looked older, like they were seniors in high school, but it didn't negatively impact my reading experience. My other main note was that while this is a wonderful spotlight on people with dyscalculia, there are also other people who don't have dyscalculia that are also very bad at math. We see Lucile work her way through math pod but I think it could've been interesting to have a few more people in the pod and have Lucile and Very be forced to pair up in some capacity. I am also dyslexic and have dyscalculia and it just made me curious about different ways this story could have been told. I think when you have someone like Verity who is perfect but then use that diagnosis as a big flaw yet be able to point and say it's because "x" just made me think of kids reading it who are struggling but don't necessarily have something to point to as the cause. That's why I suggested maybe more human characters in the pod. As much as I enjoy the robot, I didn't really understand their purpose overall. It was very cute and brought humor and levity but it didn't click with me. That being said, I highly recommend this graphic novel and would love to see more slices of the middle school and high school life through Larson's artwork and storytelling. #VeryBadatMath #NetGalley

Books focusing on middle grade disabilities can be hit or miss. I have a middle schooler with dysgraphia, another not well known disability. I can't wait for him to read this book! Dyscalcula is just another invisible disability that needs recognition!

Everyone thinks Verity is perfect at everything. And she is great at a lot of things - except math. I loved seeing this middle schooler so excited about policy change and her local representative while dealing with relatable friendship issues and everyday woes of middle school. The side characters were wonderful and I look forward to sharing this one with everyone I know!

Very Bad at Math follows Verity (aka Very) a future politician and current class president, who seems to have it all. She's popular, runs a tight ship on student council, and has good grades...in everything except math.

The characters may just be a little too high-achieving (podcasts, friendships with congressional staffers, pizza businesses) for a lot of modern middle schoolers to relate, but these endeavors serve the story well.

There is not a lot of representation for dyscalculia in kidlit, and there should be more. As a two-time math class repeater in middle/high school, I understand the struggles. Also nice to see a kid getting extra help early and being successful elsewhere.

I wanted to like this one. I truly did. But it just fell flat for me. The artwork was lacklustre and the story didn't work very well. Yes, the lesson learned was learned, but Verity was a strange character and the overall social media element drove me a little nuts. I get that social media can change opinion on a dime, and it was interesting to see how the teller manipulated reality; however, I am not convinced that someone reading this would be able to link that back to social media damaging reputations quite the way the author intended. Verity was not very likeable even when she was being portrayed as her most likeable. I got the impression that she did it all for popularity even when it was supposed to come off as her being a good person. Her parents didn't really help the story either, because they just made me think of the parent who interferes in a non-productive way. Again, maybe that is the point, but the way it was presented was too over the top to really have the right impact.

The artwork was also a challenge for me because of the way everyone's faces are drawn with that sunken look and pointy nose. Verity most of all. Not sure if that was intentional or not, given that there is some ambiguity about Verity's sexuality throughout.

Larson has been a bit hit or miss for me, with more stories falling to the 3 star, so maybe I'm not the right audience for these graphic novels.

If you liked previous Larson books, this will probably be a good read. It may not be the best, but you'll likely have a better reaction than I did to this one.

I love the way this graphic novel captures what it's like to have a learning disability! To my knowledge there aren't a ton of middle grade graphic novels out there that capture this so well. Verity "Very" is the class president but may have to step down due to failing math. But she's failing math because she has dyscalculia! I loved that this is a story of friendship and class gossip as much as it is about Very's math journey, so it will appeal to readers of Raina Telgemeier and Svetlana Chmakova.

Middle grade graphic novels have come so far. I love that so many authors are showing disabilities in their books and giving representation to real life situations. Very Bad at Math focuses on Very, a popular middle schooler who succeeds in everything she does, including being class president. She is well liked and moves through life with ease and contentment. The one dark cloud in Very's bright sky is math, she just can't seem to do it. No matter how much she studies and how hard she tries nothing seems to change, even remedial math classes aren't working. With her math grad threatening to end her term as class president Very starts to lash out at friends and finds herself drowning in what she perceives as failure. This story has so many messages - it brings awareness to a learning disability I had never heard of before, it shows the power of honesty in friendship, and it shows the pressure of trying to appear perfect to your peers. I really loved this book, it had a lot of heart.

I didn't see that Very has dyscalculia coming at all!

Larson's newest graphic novel does a fantastic job of exploring dyscalculia. I was worried with a title including "math" that it would be boring, but it's not at all. I hope it doesn't keep other readers away, especially those who are also bad at math-- and may have dyscalculia.

Very Bad at Math is a super cute graphic novel for the middle grade crowd about a young girl who excels at EVERYTHING, except for math. I loved the illustrations on this one, they were fun and fit the age group perfectly. I also liked that it brings attention to learning disorders and how much that can effect your school as you grow up. I think this handled a lot of topics really well including public image, bullying, and more. It was also just super fun! I would definitely recommend it for middle grade graphic novel readers!

Thanks to NetGalley, Hope Larson, and HarperCollins for the chance to read and review. My opinions are my own!

Fast & enjoyable middle grade graphic novel about Verity Nelson-student body president who's great at everything-everything except math and if she doesn't get her grades up soon she'll have to drop out of student body altogether. Her Principal sends her to remedial math classes but when you're great at everything the last thing you want is for anyone else to find out you need extra help & your perfect reputation to take a hit.

This book had lots to recommend it-a likeable main character in Verity & a very relatable problem-being bad at math while not having any problems with any other subjects in school. When it turns out Verity has a learning disability connected with her problems in math called dyscalculia (a learning disability that causes her to mix up numbers) her math tutor explains to her parents & makes sure she gets extra help.


There are lots of moments of vulnerability throughout this book which hit home--saying sorry, asking for help, admitting to having messed things up. Even when these moments happened after they should have-the fact they were discussed & talked about was important to show that if we want to make things right we can try even after the fact when we make mistakes.
I would recommend this book to a middle school kid.

Thanks to netgalley & Harper Alley for the advance copy.