The book contains mathematical and logic puzzles for the reader to solve, presented as what The New Yorker called "absurdist math problems.

He says that when he showed the students at Wayside School a regular math textbook, they laughed, thinking it was a book of jokes.

These are also presented as verbal arithmetic puzzles that are, as Mrs. Jewls states, impossible; the reader is tasked with figuring out why.

In the next chapter, Mrs. Jewls tells Sue that if she doesn't understand how to do math in her class, she should switch schools.

[2] The Guardian praised the book and its sequel, writing: "Sachar never wastes a moment, a word or a clue.