Violet and the Pie of Life by Debra Green – Book Review

Title: Violet and the Pie of Life Author: Debra Green Publisher: Holiday House Release Date: March 9, 2021

Violet is math whiz, Pi fan, and pie fan. She can calculate numbers at lightning speed, has extensive knowledge of Pi, and loves making math charts for everyday life. But when her father suddenly leaves the family equation, Violet’s world becomes much harder to figure out, much harder to chart. At the same time, she’s cast in a big role for the school play, much to the chagrin of her best friend McKenzie, and starts up a friendship with McKenzie’s mortal enemy, Ally. Violet’s problems seems to go on and on as infinitely as Pi. That is, until she starts to accept her life as it is, not as she tries to solve for it with probability equations and graphs. Doing so requires that she starts tapping into the courage deep within her first.

Violet and the Pie of Life is a fun, humorous, and moving portrait of a young person coping with their parents’ divorce. Author Debra Green has a clear talent for creating interesting and dynamic characters. They are not perfect, but they are perfect with flaws to spark intrigue and make them relatable. In fact, readers will yearn to learn more about less prominent characters, such as McKenzie and Violet’s father. Violet, her family, and McKenzie are White, while Ally is biracial with a White mother and Latinx father. The narrative is also just as true-to-life in the messy realities it depicts. Although it follows a fairly predictable storyline, Green does not make the ending too perfect or tie loose ends together too neatly. Readers will reach the conclusion equally satisfied and curious about the characters’ next chapter in life. Violet and the Pie of Life is filled with math humor and interesting illustrations that  inject some levity in a book that contains otherwise heavy thematic elements. Whether you love math, pie, plays, or middle school drama, this book has something for everyone.

Educators and students alike will enjoy Violet and the Pie of Life. While perfect for a classroom library, English teachers may also take advantage of the opportunity the novel creates to collaborate with Math teachers. Regardless, it’s a humorous and heart-warming narrative that will garner many fans. Violet and the Pie of Life is a solid novel to grace the middle grade genre.

Thank you to Edelweiss+ and publisher, Holiday House, for an eARC of this book.

Classroom Applications

• Teacher Collaboration – Collaborate with the Math teacher! Teach the novel at the same time the Math teacher addresses the math concepts, charts, or graphs that are used in the novel.
• Book Club or Book Exchange – Share the novel with students that enjoy reading realistic fiction.

Nonfiction Connections

The list below outlines topics that will enrich your students’ understanding of the novel.

• Math Concepts

Book Companions

The following are great books to pair with Violet and the Pie of Life. In parenthesis are the specific aspects students could explore when synthesizing across the texts.

• Shouting at the Rain by Linda Mullaly Hunt (Character Connections, Themes)
• The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart (Character Connections, Themes)
• Clues to the Universe by Christina Li (Character Connections, Themes)

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