I just started reading SICP yesterday after being convinced by PG's essays [0] and I would suggest just looking at the solutions, since the first chapter relies heavily on number theory concepts, and the authors say they take that choice because it makes introduction to more abstract ideas easier (as a math grad student I'm already on page 110). I personally think that to someone without a background in higher arithmetic it would be a bit boring, so I repeat that it wouldn't hurt to look at some solutions to get a feel to it [1]. The book is MIND-BLOWING and after years of C++ and Python I'm really excited of what I will find in the next chapers.
[0] http://www.paulgraham.com/avg.html (referenced in the top link blog post)