Wayside School is Falling Down

Posted on September 23, 2010 by Mrs. N

Wayside School Is Falling Down by Louis Sachar

Mrs. Jewls’s class returns in Wayside School is Falling Down.  The characters from Sideways Stories from Wayside School are back, but they’re joined by some new friends this time around.  Following the same 30 chapter, 30 short story format as its predecessor, Wayside School is Falling Down is bound to keep fans of Sideways Stories in stitches.

There are even more dead rats this time (although none so funny as in Sideways Stories); we get to learn a bit more about the mysterious missing 19th floor and a new boy, Benjamin Nushmutt, gets into all sorts of scrapes trying to find the right time to tell people he’s not really Mark Miller.

There’s one slightly uncomfortable chapter about a hobo.  I’m not really sure where the world stands on hobos these days, but it seems like maybe that’s a term that we shouldn’t use.  It certainly isn’t the same as homeless, since it implies a more transitory life, but the tone is that hobos can be laughed at, and I’m not sure that it’s ever the case that we should find humor in homelessness.

My favorite chapter is the one that you have to read backward.  I think kids will love it when they figure out what they need to do!

Age Recommendation: Grades 3-5.  This will be on the tricky side for some third graders but they are sure to love the humor.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – Boys and girls have to dance together.  Bebe’s brother threw all her underwear out the window.  Mushroom Surprise (a school lunch choice) makes you kiss people! A student gets a tattoo (I seriously do NOT have a category for underage tattooing) and someone suggests he get a naked lady tattoo.  A student is in love with his teacher.  To avoid being teased by the other kids he puts a dead rat in her desk.  He confesses to her later that he did it because he loves her and didn’t want the other kids to know.  She tells him she loves him too.  He asks “what about Mister Jewls?” and she tells him that love doesn’t get used up.  The more you give away, the more you have to give.
Profanity – “darn,” “shut up,”
Death, Violence and Gore –  A girl’s name is Bebe Gunn.   More dead rats.  Joy gets attacked by a cuddly puppy toy that has turned into a biting wolf toy.  Kathy tends toward singing rather violent songs, such as “Wayside School is falling down…Kids go splat as they hit the ground,” and “broken bones and blood and gore”.  A mother skunk is killed by a car. Someone is eaten by cannibals.  That sounds a lot worse than it is, I promise.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None
Frightening or Intense Things –If this is used as a read aloud with younger children (primary grades), some may be upset at Chapter 26. In this chapter we learn that “There is no such thing as a nice teacher.” and that “Inside every nice teacher there is a mean and rotten teacher bursting to get out.  The nicer the teacher is on the outside, the meaner the teacher is on the inside.”  Older kids will not likely be frightened by this (and may enjoy making a connection to Miss Nelson and Viola Swamp of Miss Nelson is Missing fame).  Younger children may worry about their own nice teachers turning mean.

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Sideways Stories from Wayside School

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Mrs. N

Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar

Louis Sachar restores my faith that it is possible to write something hilarious about school without completely demeaning both children and teachers.  I made it exactly six pages into this before I laughed out loud.  Wayside school is a bit twisted.  It’s for kids with a smart and off sense of humor.  This book should appeal to both boys and girls, as the stories involve fun and interesting characters of both genders.

Age Recommendation: Given the level of vocabulary, I would say that advanced third graders could read this, but that it’s probably more on a fourth grade level.

Great for: Short attention spans.  Sideways stories is thirty (super short – 4 page) chapters long.  Each chapter is a unique but related story.  For kids that have trouble sustaining reading, this is a great choice.  It’s also so funny that even reluctant readers may find themselves laughing aloud.

This would also make a great read aloud for teachers.  The short chapters are perfect because you have plenty of natural stopping places, and the book will surely capture your class’s attention.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – A boy gets kissed on the nose.  Another boy gets stuck to a chair and they debate cutting off his pants to free him.
Profanity – “darn,” “stupid,” and “dumb”
Death, Violence and Gore – A bit of banging heads on walls and people slapping themselves in the face.  Robbers enter holding guns.  A girl’s name is Bebe Gunn.  A bit of biting and punching and kicking.  There is threat to knock out someone’s teeth.  There’s a dead rat.  A kid says that next time he gets a cat he’ll kill it so it can never run away.  A teacher is turned into an apple and eaten.  A girl considers selling her toes to be used as little hot dogs.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None
Frightening or Intense Things – None

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Roderick Rules (Diary of a Wimpy Kid #2)

Posted on September 20, 2010 by Mrs. N


I’m sure it will come as a surprise to no one when I admit that I liked this no better than the first.  Publisher’s Weekly promises “A laugh-out loud ‘novel in cartoons’…should keep readers in stitches” and Kirkus Reviews cites this book’s “Unhinging hilarity” but I can’t say as I found it very entertaining.

I do wonder a bit if maybe, just maybe, the language and potty humor wouldn’t grate on me quite so much if I didn’t dislike Greg (the main character) so much.  I mean, my nephews have whoopee cushions.  I promise you, I do not lecture them or go off in a snit when one appears on my chair.  I pretend not to notice, sit down and act horrified and embarrassed as any aunt who has caused a farting noise should.  But my nephews aren’t awful people.  Greg kind of is.  Unsurprisingly, I’m not exactly impressed with his mom and dad’s parenting skills either.

One of the big themes of this book is cheating.  Greg hopes to cheat off a smart kid who sits near him.  Roderick (Greg’s older brother) doesn’t care about his school work, so the father does his reports for him.  Greg finds a way to turn in a report on the same book each year so he never has to read another book.  Greg doesn’t do a report because he’s planning on school being cancelled for a snow day.  When he finds out the snow will miss them he pays his brother for an old report.  Multiple family members pitch in to do Roderick’s science project.

Greg also continues his reign as a really bad friend.  When his friend Rowley returns from a vacation Greg tells us “I don’t know if this makes me a bad person or whatever, but it’s hard for me to get interested in other people’s vacations.” Newsflash Greg, yes, if you don’t actually care about anything that happens in your friends’ lives, you are a bad person.  Greg also says that he wouldn’t have gone to his best friend’s birthday party if he’d known what it would be like.  When another friend appears at school when they’d all thought he was moving away, Greg decides to pretend the child is invisible.  He gets the whole grade level to go along with him.  And this is a friend.  Not someone he doesn’t like.  Not a bully.  This is how he treats a friend.  The principal finally hears of it, but like the principal in the My Weird School series, he disciplines students and follows it up with candy.

I rather expect the rest of the series is more of the same but I honestly can’t bring myself to read numbers 3 and 4 right now.  I’m going to need something to clear my head after these.  I do first have to admit though, that I did like one part, where Greg writes a completely abysmal made up report about a moose.  That was funny.  But I’m partial to moose.  Mooses.  Meese.

Hey, guess what, this is a <a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004Z7AHZC/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=betthepag05-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004Z7AHZC”>movie</a><img src=”http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=betthepag05-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B004Z7AHZC” width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”” style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” />
now too.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – The parents watch romantic comedies and kiss and smooch sounds come from the TV.  Greg tells Rowley that his father smells like a woman (I honestly don’t know what that’s supposed to mean!).  Rowley sits on something sharp and a cartoon depicts him bending over with his pants down while Greg’s mother apply’s medicine.  No crack is shown.  When Rowley has a babysitter, Greg goes over to his house because the sitter is pretty.  Greg makes a cartoon where the parents are going on a romantic vacation.
Profanity – Again, nothing so bad enough that they’d bleep it on television, but: “jerk” , “stupid”, “dumb”,  “screw up”, “heck”, “idiot”, “sissy”, “darn”, “dang”.  These are used multiple times throughout.
Bathroom Humor Again there are references to “kissing butt”.  Greg’s brother’s band is called LODED DIPER.   A kid is teased for having the initials PU. To avoid doing the dishes Roderick goes to the bathroom for an hour after dinner each night and says his body is on a schedule.  Greg is supposed to be pet-sitting for a family but lets the dog make it’s messes indoors rather than walking it.  This is shown in cartoon form.  Roderick puts fake vomit on cars.  Roderick is shown spitting milk in Greg’s face.  Roderick’s band gets a special effects pedal and makes “farted” repeat using an echo effect.  There are multiple references to Greg’s younger brother potty training.  It’s hard to figure where the next part goes – either here or in sex, but either way – Greg hides from Roderick in a public restroom, but it turns out he’s in the women’s room, not the men’s room.  He gets found out and called a “Peeping Tom”.  Roderick circulates the story to embarrass Greg, but the story somehow changes so that it seems like Greg was caught in a high school girl’s locker room, which makes him very cool.
Death, Violence and Gore – There’s plenty of punching.  Greg remembers how he was excited to have a little brother: This is shown in cartoon form, where Greg thinks of Roderick kicking him, and imagines himself kicking his little brother.  A girl who was voted Most Likely to be a Rock Star is probably in jail according to Greg.  A new babysitter of Greg’s friend teaches them a game called Magick and Monsters.  In this game, lots of violent things happen – there are cartoons of people getting skewered with arrows, Greg says he’ll light Rowley’s eyebrows with a torch.  When Greg plays with Roderick, Roderick says that all Greg’s people fall in a hole with dynamite and get blown up.  Roderick and his friends watch horror movies.  The three year old baby brother turns on the tv and accidently watches the horror movies.  Greg hides a dumbbells under a pillow he knows Rowley will kick causing Rowley to break a toe.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – In the Magick and Monsters game Greg orders mead, knowing it’s a type of beer (this is all imaginary).  A lighter is shown in a comic.  Roderick throws a party when their parents are out of town.  The picture shows bottles and cans everywhere.  I suppose some children will interpret these as soda, as they are unlabeled, but some will also interpret these as alcoholic beverages.
Frightening or Intense Things – None

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Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Posted on September 18, 2010 by Mrs. N


Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney is huge and it’s only getting bigger. This past year it was made into a movie, effectively creating even more devotees. The fifth book in the series becomes available on November 9th and can be pre-ordered now. Although the book takes place in middle school, and is in fact most appropriate for those grades, the cartoon illustrations that are peppered throughout the book make it wildly appealing to kids as young as second grade. Both the content and the reading level are most likely not appropriate for children that young, but when they grab the book from the shelves they’re able to read the simple words above the cartoons and are convinced they could read the whole thing.

I feel like I should recuse myself from this because it’s just not my kind of book. As you saw from my reviews of the My Weird School series I don’t love books that are into calling things dumb and stupid. I’m also not really into bathroom humor. Then again, if I were a middle school boy, I would probably be very into these things. And yes, I meant to say boy. While this books might be funny to girls as well, as with the My Weird School books, girls are not portrayed favorably. Where this differs from My Weird School is that it is a lot more sophisticated. There is an actual plot, and the humor involves more than just I hate school and girls are stupid.

One of the things that I found bothered me is that Greg is just not a nice kid. I don’t mean that in a goody-two shoes kind of way, I mean that he really is pretty awful to the people around him. He throws apples at a girl hitting her in the face. He chases kindergartners with a worm and lets his best friend get in trouble for it, even though this means his best friend can’t be on the safety patrol anymore. He invents a game where he gets to try to knock his friend off a bike with a football, but he refuses to ever take a turn on the bike himself. He runs for class office, but runs a smear campaign. He destroys his little brother’s snowman. It’s his fault his grandmother’s house gets toilet papered on Halloween, but he doesn’t help clean up because he figures she’s retired and doesn’t have anything else to do. He also lies to his parents. Do all these things add up to big laughs with some kids? Absolutely. Personally though, I couldn’t get over what a selfish snot Greg was and how he didn’t ever seem to have remorse for anything he did (or enough remorse to try to change or fix things).

Also, for the first time, I’ve added a bathroom category below, since much of the humor in this book hinges on poop and pee.

A Possibility For:As with many books that bring in the laughs with slapstick violence and bathroom jokes, this is a possibility for boys that don’t love reading. It’s not an easy book, so it won’t work as well for struggling readers that don’t enjoy reading, unless you go as high as fifth and sixth grade.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – There is talk of “hot girls,” “cute butts” and kissing. Roderick is found with a magazine that features a girl in a bikini on the cover. Phys. Ed. required kids play shirts vs. skins.
Profanity – This book specializes in profanity “lite”.  Nothing is bad enough that they’d bleep it on television, but given that this book is often read by third graders, there is some vocabulary to be aware of:  “jerk” used 6 times, “stupid” used 5 times, “dumb” used 5 times, “morons” used 3 times, “screwing up/screw up” used 3 times, “heck” used twice, “idiot”, and a “Thank God”.
Bathroom Humor I’m kind of unsure where to put the references to “kissing butt” but here will have to do. Girls are called “stinky poos” twice. Roderick leaves dirty underwear on the kitchen table. At the zoo the children watch the animals go to the bathroom. A cartoon depicts a teacher pooping his pants. There are references to diaper rash, loaded diapers, farts, a kid who says juice when he has to use the bathroom. A few cartoons of people crossing their legs because they have to pee so badly. A student, Preston Mudd, has an award with his name posted on it as P. Mudd and all the kids make fun of him and call him Pee Mudd.
Death, Violence and Gore Much of the violence in this book occurs in cartoon form, where the main character will show he (or someone else) was hit, kicked, shoved, etc. by drawing it and adding the word kick, hit or shove. This occurs fairly often throughout the book. Greg throws apples at a girl breaking her glasses. He invents a game that is throwing a football at his best friend while his friend rides a bike and ends up causing his friend to break his arm. A kid is tripped a breaks his tooth. Older kids spray Greg and Roderick with fire extinguishers (this kind of bothers me because in the book the extinguishers are filled with water, which is certainly not the case in real life and this misinformation could cause trouble if children think it’s safe to duplicate this stunt.) Greg plays violent video games (although we aren’t told what the violence is). In cartoons drawn by the students a persons foot burns off after stepping in acid and you can see the bone, in another the cartoon character is decapitated.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – One student smokes a pack a day.
Frightening or Intense Things – None

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The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

Posted on September 14, 2010 by Mrs. N

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

This is one of those YA books that I have no difficulty recommending to adults.  It’s smart and fun.  To her family, Frankie is Bunny Rabbit, the harmless baby sister.  To her classmates she was invisible, until a summer growth spurt made her more attractive.  But Frankie soon learns that being pretty may have gotten her noticed, but there are new ways in which she feels overlooked and underestimated.  Unlike most teens, Frankie is determined to do something about it. When she discovers her father’s secret society is still active on her prep school campus (and still all male), she finds herself hatching a plan, and there’s no going back.

As I said, this book is smart, and it expects as much from its readers. There is a lot of difficult vocabulary: antiquated, disparaging, cachet, nepotism, dissipated, pejorative, spurious.  Frankie also loves to play with words, and make new ones, for example – disgruntled means angry or dissatisfied, but Frankie uses gruntled to mean happy or content.  There’s a section of the book that explains Frankie’s construction, but the people who will enjoy this the most, are the kind who get what she’s doing on their own.

One additional note:  Frankie is Jewish.  It’s not a huge part of the book, but it’s relevant in that it adds another layer to her feelings of being different from many at her school.  I know some girls will love having a main character who shares their background.

Great for: Your little feminist.  Frankie is constantly thinking about what she is left out of because she is a girl.  It’s not done in an obnoxious way; it’s actually the kind of thing that has you nodding along, thinking “I never thought of that, but it’s so true!”

This is also great for readers who’ve spent time at a private school, boarding school or certain colleges – I was constantly reminded of my small Northeastern liberal arts school.  You don’t have to be a prep school alum to get it, but so many things will feel familiar if you’ve had experience in a similar setting (duh).

Sex, Nudity, Dating – There are several references to Frankie’s curvaceous figure.  A boy calls his mother “the menstrual unit.”  There is some kissing, “making out,” holding hands and once or twice clothed bodies are pressed up against each other.  Some boys skinny dip.  Our main character is not sexually active.  Her sister reminds her to use protection and she protests that she is not having sex, citing both her age and the short length of her relationship.  She is curious about if others are having sex and sometimes speculates about it, and occasionally worries that her boyfriend might be disappointed that they are not doing more.
Profanity – “ass,” “piss off,” “balls,”  “sucks,” and “F-U” is used twice, although it is used exactly as I typed it, the words are never written out.
Death, Violence and Gore – None
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – There is definitely underage drinking and smoking, but our main character engages in neither.  Alcohol is mentioned as being present at parties and a few characters mention being drunk.  A former child actor says she had to work with “coke addicts” and members of a secret society smoked marijuana in the seventies.
Frightening or Intense Things – None

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Ms. Hannah is Bananas! – My Weird School #4

Posted on September 10, 2010 by Mrs. N

My Weird School #4: Ms. Hannah Is Bananas! by Dan Gutman

So far, most of these books have tried to sneak a little bit of learning in with all the humor.  There have been some math problems and some extremely questionable historical information, but Ms. Hannah talks about something I can certainly get behind – recycling!

Like the prior books in the series, there’s a bit of bathroom humor, girls are still the enemy and AJ hates everything school related.  This is my last My Weird School review, so you’re on your own for the rest of the series.  Gutman seems to be following a pretty predictable formula which is bound to be appealing to kids who hate school.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – None
Profanity – just plenty more “hate”, and some “dumb” and this time, we add “stupid”
Death, Violence and Gore – AJ wishes an elephant would step on Andrea’s head, the kids think teachers shoot BB guns in the teacher’s lounge.  AJ says he’s going to paint a tree falling and crushing a family of happy butterflies.  The kids joke that their real art teacher might be held captive and tortured.  Andrea pushes AJ.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None
Frightening or Intense Things – None

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Mrs. Roopy is Loopy! – My Weird School #3

Posted on September 9, 2010 by Mrs. N

My Weird School #3: Mrs. Roopy Is Loopy! by Dan Gutman

The gross-out type humor escalates in this book, with a few bathroom jokes and the boys eating carrots that they’ve shoved up their nose.  Girls continue to be crybabies and kiss ups.  A.J. continues to find everything about school boring and stupid.

Sadly, I continue to find these books boring.  Basically for each book, Gutman picks a gag and repeats it a million times.  In Miss Daisy is Crazy, Miss Daisy would pretend not to know anything, in Mr. Klutz is Nuts, Mr. Klutz arranged bribe after bribe in exchange for learning.  In Mrs. Roopy is Loopy, the repeating gag is that the librarian dresses up as different historical characters. But, what I find boring is something that is reassuring to beginning readers. Being able to rely on a pattern helps readers know what to expect.

Like the other books in the series, I would recommend these mainly for primary grades readers, in particular, reluctant readers and the school-averse.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – The librarian lifts her shirt and shows the students a heart tattoo on her stomach.  There’s a joke that George Washington is probably running around without his clothes on.  A.J. grabs the librarian’s shirt and lifts it up.
Profanity – just plenty more “hate”, and some “dumb”
Death, Violence and Gore – Mrs. Roopy sings a song where Melvil Dewey drops dead on the floor of the library.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None
Frightening or Intense Things – None

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Mr. Klutz is Nuts! – My Weird School #2

Posted on September 8, 2010 by Mrs. N

My Weird School #2: Mr. Klutz Is Nuts! by Dan Gutman

Essentially, this whole book is just one big bribe.  When A.J. finds himself in the principal’s office for failure to complete his work and hurting a girl during a hockey game, he earns himself a chocolate bar.  His friends immediately are jealous and place a tack on their teacher’s chair so that they too can go to the principal and get rewarded.  The rest of the book consists of the principal performing more and more outlandish stunts in an effort to get the children to learn.

Again, I’m not thrilled with the basic premise that kids need bribery to enjoy school, but many kids do enjoy the crazy antics of the principal.  I’m also hoping that at some point in the series some girls manage to be cool, because right now, they’re all crybabies, scaredy-cats and kiss ups.  It may be in keeping with the average seven year old boy’s opinions, but it certainly does nothing for gender equality.  The thing is, girls aren’t all crybabies, scaredy-cats and kiss ups and portraying them that way is degrading for girls and doesn’t do boys any favors either.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – None
Profanity – just plenty more “hate”, and some “dumb”
Death, Violence and Gore – The principal’s stunts get so out of hand that the students are worried that he’ll be killed and then they’ll have to feel guilty.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None
Frightening or Intense Things – None

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Miss Daisy is Crazy! – My Weird School #1

Posted on September 7, 2010 by Mrs. N

My Weird School #1: Miss Daisy Is Crazy!
by Dan Gutman

So, I’ll start by admitting that this series is wildly popular, a huge hit with kids.  That said, I can’t say as I’m a fan.  I just have a hard time appreciating books where the main focus is tricking kids into learning and an abiding hatred of school.  I can understand their appeal, but I don’t love them.

In Miss Daisy is Crazy, A.J. shows up for second grade and his first announcement is that he likes football and video games and he hates school.  Also, he’s certain he’ll never need to learn to read, because he’s going to be a professional athlete.*  Imagine his surprise when his teacher announces that she also hates school and would much rather be home watching TV and eating bonbons.  Of course, Miss Daisy could just be faking her hatred of school and complete and utter ignorance of all school related subjects, but she certainly captures her class’s attention.

While first grade readers that are very advanced could probably read this, it’s my feeling that a very advanced reader would have a hard time associating with the main character’s utter hatred of all things learning.  The book is far more likely to be a hit with older students who struggle in school.  I would consider this on grade level for second graders and an appropriate beginning of the year pick for on level third graders.  Some of the harder vocabulary is defined in context.  The author is well-known and well-liked so older kids need not feel embarrassed about reading books that are too babyish.

A possibility for: Kids who hate school or who are reluctant readers.

Sex, Nudity, Dating – None
Profanity – there’s a lot of “hate”
Death, Violence and Gore – When a little girl says she wants to be a nurse when she grows up, A.J. asks why she’d want to do that when “people come into hospitals all sick and injured, their arms falling off, their guts hanging out.”
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None
Frightening or Intense Things – None

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Back to School Preview (not a book)

Posted on September 6, 2010 by Mrs. N

Summer is over.  I say that with plenty of authority, and no respect for the actual calendar which seems to think summer ends in late September.  I beg to differ.  Summer ends the night before school starts, which happens to be tonight.

To ease the transition back into the school year, all month long I’ll be reviewing books about school.  There’ll be information on Dan Gutman’s My Weird School series, Louis Sachar’s twisted Sideways Stories From Wayside School, a new book I’m dying to read – The Strange Case of the Origami Yoda and plenty more.  If there’s a school story you want the scoop on, go ahead an click the requests button or leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do!

Happy Back to School!

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