Ella Martinez Nocito

The Intrepid Defenders of Long Lake Math Team By Ella Martinez Nocito

Eighth grader Juanita Lakso is a proud nerd, and she credits her rural middle school’s math team for her confidence. Without math team, she’s sure she’d be a friendless, socially ostracized geek: no weird binary puns, no bonding over calculator functions, and definitely not the excellent shot she has this year at winning Maine’s middle school mathematics championship. So when Juanita discovers her team is getting shut down, it’s up to her—with help from her mathlete friends—to save it in time to compete at States.

Now Juanita must present their case to the school board, collaborate with her worst bully, and convince her peers that math team is about more than just numbers—all of which is far outside her shy comfort zone. And that’s even without bringing her cousin, Marc, into the equation, who apparently thinks he’ll win States, too…

The odds are stacked against her, but Juanita is determined to learn to speak up for what she believes in and save the math team before she loses her chance to be the first girl to win Maine’s Math State Championship. Ever.

The Intrepid Defenders of Long Lake Math Team is a 58,000-word middle-grade realistic fiction novel with a girls in STEM element that would appeal to fans of Emmy in the Key of Code and The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl. Although not autobiographical, this novel was inspired by my own middle school math team experiences, which culminated in representing Maine at nationals eighth grade year.

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