Eddie Woo publishes his first junior fiction books

He is one of the world’s best known maths teachers but now Eddie Woo has turned his attention to another subject.

Eddie Woo knows he will raise eyebrows. He knows people will want to know why “that maths guy” is writing fiction. After all, it doesn’t seem fair that a person so skilled in the world of numbers is now turning his attention to letters – usually people are either one or the other, right?

But Woo hopes the publication of his first junior fiction books – Time Out! and Team Trouble! which will launch the Whodunnit Eddie Woo series of books starring a young maths super sleuth – will show people he is more than just a one-trick pony.

In fact, Woo, a 36-year-old father of three from Sydney’s northwest hopes the new series will dispel a few myths about him, namely that he has always been good at maths (he hasn’t), that he must have sucked at English and history (he didn’t) and that he always wanted to be a maths teacher (also wrong).

“I’ve always loved writing from a really young age. A lot of people get surprised by that because they know me now through mathematics,” he says.

Eddie Woo is releasing his first fiction books, designed to help kids experience numbers and how they work through puzzles and solving mysteries. Picture: Richard Dobson

“I did it for leisure and took four-level English where I would write a lot. I put that joy and pastime away for many, many years because in the mathematics world that doesn’t tend to be what you do. If you met me anywhere between the ages of five and 18, you would not have picked me as someone gifted at mathematics, I struggled a bit and sort of plodded along. I did OK at maths but mostly because I have a pretty good memory.

“To this day, I routinely teach students that are smarter than me.”

That may well be, but humility aside, Woo’s YouTube channel where he teaches maths theory as filmed in his Cherrybrook Technology High School classroom, has almost 123 million global views and 1.4 million subscribers.

Kids from across the globe contact Woo to help them with their homework (something he could do more often in 2012 when he started his WooTube channel). And in 2018 he was named Australia’s Local Hero of the Year and short-listed as one of the Top 10 teachers in the world.

Woo still works as a teacher, but also splits his time mentoring and supporting teachers through the NSW Education Department. And now he’s adding a book promo tour to his busy agenda.

Woo collaborated with kids’ authors Dave Hartley for Team Trouble! and Jess Black for Time Out! but the main character, aptly named Eddie, is a version of Woo himself.

“The version of me that’s in the book is kind of the version of me that I wished I had been,” Woo says.

Eddie Woo’s new book Time Out

Team Trouble is his other new release

“He’s a lot braver and he’s a lot more popular; actually, in primary school I had a lot of trouble making friends.

“I guess what is the same is that curiosity to learn everything and being inquisitive about all things, to a fault actually, enough to get into trouble. That is 100 per cent me.”

To the unsuspecting upper primary school reader, the books are a rollicking fun read where Eddie and his mates, Rusty and DT, solve a mystery. But there is an underlying maths theme they may not even notice, where the mystery is always solved by applying real-world maths.

In Time Out!, the gang sets out to uncover the clues in a century’s old treasure hunt and, along the way, they need to solve a cipher and discover a clue hidden in a piece of music.

It reads a bit like an Encyclopaedia Brown book and is a real page-turner.

“The one primary goal I have for these books is to help give kids a positive mindset for mathematics and have them enjoy a good story along the way,” Woo says. “However, I knew that if I did it in that order and make it about maths first and the story second, I wouldn’t be able to do either of those things.

“If kids are to enjoy this and have fun reading it and keep turning the page, then it had to be a compelling narrative, there had to be a reason to get to the end and the mathematics had to serve that, not the other way around. But I’ve pumped as much mathematics in there as I can.”

While his focus may be on the promotion of his new books, his mind is still very much on the problems with the education system in Australia.

Eddie Woo made a name for himself as a popular maths teacher and was shortlisted as one of the 10 best teachers in the world. Picture: AAP IMAGE / Troy Snook

He admits it’s dire.

Twenty years ago, Australia ranked fourth among OECD nations for reading and 11th for maths. By 2018, those numbers had fallen to 16th for reading and 29th for maths.

“I’m an optimist but I also know enough about our education system to know we have a load of things we need to work on,” he says.

“Over the last couple of months there has been industrial action with teachers (in NSW schools) and they’re talking about the incredible workload and expectations that have been placed on them that sort of reached a wrecking point throughout the pandemic.

“There’s no controversy for me to say even over the (relatively short) 15 years that I have been teaching, I have seen the complexity of the job change. I know that when I began teaching we didn’t really have what we now call ‘student adjustment guides’ or ‘individualised learning plans’ that take into account the many and varied special needs our students have in cognitive or social disabilities.

“I am so glad that we’re aware of that now, but someone has said ‘that’s a really good idea to do that’ and then given teachers no amount of time to actually do it.”

He adds an undersupply of teachers, particularly in maths, is a further problem plaguing the subject he loves and one of the reasons he switched from becoming an English and history teacher – which was his first choice – to becoming a maths teacher.

It can seem like an overwhelming problem, but Woo takes it in his optimistic stride.

“It’s worth noting that there is always hope,” Woo says. “While these challenges are real, children are incredibly resilient and with the right support they can overcome these difficulties.

“Remember how I spoke to you about my own challenges with maths over the years? And look where I’ve gotten to.”

The Whodunnit series of Team Trouble! by Eddie Woo and Dave Hartley, and Time Out! by Eddie Woo and Jess Black, illustrations by Mitch Vane and published by Pan Macmillan Australia, is available now, $15 each