The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2018

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-11

Chapters 12-19

Chapters 20-29

Chapters 30-40

Character Analysis

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Summary and Study Guide

Overview

A lightning bolt strikes young Lucy Callahan and turns her into a compulsive math genius in 2018’s The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl by Stacy McAnulty. The novel, for middle-grade readers, traces Lucy’s struggles as she emerges, after years of home schooling, to attend public school and deal with the friendships, problems, and betrayals she encounters as a young person with both a brilliant mind and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Award-winning author McAnulty has written many books for early readers, including the Dino Files series, plus multiple novels for middle-grade readers. The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl appears on seven best-of books lists for young people.

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The ebook version of the 2018 first edition forms the basis for this study guide.

Plot Summary

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During a thunderstorm when she’s eight, Lucy gets struck by lightning. She survives, but suddenly she’s a genius who can do complex math problems in her head. She lives with her grandmother, Nana (Barb Callahan), who must pull Lucy from second grade because she’s obsessed by numbers, counts everything, has to sit three times every time she gets seated, is afraid of germs, and can’t get along with the other kids. Nana homeschools her, and by age 12 Lucy has her GED and is ready for college studies.