“I’m honestly not sure how I ended up outside with a ladder, a cat, and a bag of road salt.” Bookish sixth-grader Magnolia, called Maggie, straddles that spot between childhood and being a teenager. She believes in witches, gargoyles and dragons, and, over and over, her imagination causes her friends to ask, “How do you come up with these ideas? The well-meaning girl explores her Bloor Street (Toronto) neighborhood with best friend Sasha while avoiding her nemesis, Jarrett Johnson. After bravely entering a “haunted house” (really a tattoo parlor), Maggie is convinced that its proprietor is a witch who has cast a spell on her. Her bad luck rains down in buckets, and Maggie tries all sorts of crazy curse-reversing cures before doing what she should have done in the first place. Maggie’s understanding teacher, Mrs. Fedorchuk, whose e-mails begin each chapter, gently nudges Maggie to find what she is best at. The rich cast of secondary characters, including Maggie’s parents and small circle of understanding friends, help flesh out this satisfying story, which is told in Maggie's humorous, self-deprecating voice. Because Maggie is a particularly innocent sixth grader, readers as young as third grade can enjoy this window into the middle-school world and will hope to have friends like Magnolia and Sasha. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55277-536-3
Page Count: 120
Publisher: James Lorimer
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2011
Eleven-year-old Griffin Bing is “the man with the plan.” If something needs doing, Griffin carefully plans a fix and his best friend Ben usually gets roped in as assistant. When the town council ignores his plan for a skate park on the grounds of the soon-to-be demolished Rockford House, Griffin plans a camp-out in the house. While there, he discovers a rare Babe Ruth baseball card. His family’s money worries are suddenly a thing of the past, until unscrupulous collectables dealer S. Wendell Palomino swindles him. Griffin and Ben plan to snatch the card back with a little help. Pet-lover Savannah whispers the blood-thirsty Doberman. Rock-climber “Pitch” takes care of scaling the house. Budding-actor Logan distracts the nosy neighbor. Computer-expert Melissa hacks Palomino’s e-mail and the house alarm. Little goes according to plan, but everything turns out all right in this improbable but fun romp by the prolific and always entertaining Korman. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-439-90344-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2008
Ordinary kids in an extraordinary setting: still a recipe for bright achievements and belly laughs.
Rejoice! 25 years later, Wayside School is still in session, and the children in Mrs. Jewls’ 30th-floor classroom haven’t changed a bit.
The surreal yet oddly educational nature of their misadventures hasn’t either. There are out-and-out rib ticklers, such as a spelling lesson featuring made-up words and a determined class effort to collect 1 million nail clippings. Additionally, mean queen Kathy steps through a mirror that turns her weirdly nice and she discovers that she likes it, a four-way friendship survives a dumpster dive after lost homework, and Mrs. Jewls makes sure that a long-threatened “Ultimate Test” allows every student to show off a special talent. Episodic though the 30 new chapters are, there are continuing elements that bind them—even to previous outings, such as the note to an elusive teacher Calvin has been carrying since Sideways Stories From Wayside School (1978) and finally delivers. Add to that plenty of deadpan dialogue (“Arithmetic makes my brain numb,” complains Dameon. “That’s why they’re called ‘numb-ers,’ ” explains D.J.) and a wild storm from the titular cloud that shuffles the school’s contents “like a deck of cards,” and Sachar once again dishes up a confection as scrambled and delicious as lunch lady Miss Mush’s improvised “Rainbow Stew.” Diversity is primarily conveyed in the illustrations.
Ordinary kids in an extraordinary setting: still a recipe for bright achievements and belly laughs. (Fiction. 9-11)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-296538-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
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