Caramel reviews Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar

Today Caramel reviews Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar. The first of several Wayside School books written by Sachar, this book was published originally in 1978. As usual, Sprinkles is asking questions and taking notes.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, I heard a lot about these Wayside School books, but I have not read them myself. Can you tell me a bit about what they are all about?

Caramel: Well, at this point I only read this first book. So I can only talk about that.

S: That’s okay. Tell me about this book. What is it about?

C: It’s about these kids in this place called Wayside School. It is a weird school, and all the students and teachers are also weird, and very strange and interesting things keep happening.

S: How is the school weird?

C: First of all, it is thirty stories high, like a skyscraper. Because they built it sideways. It was supposed to be one story high and with thirty classrooms, but the builder messed up and put all classrooms on their own floors. I think it is a waste of space.

S: Hmm, I think on the contrary it saves space, it takes only the area of one classroom for the whole school. No?

C: I guess. Anyways the students are weird and the teachers, too, and there are some dead rats that seem to be alive.

S: Oh yes, I think I heard about a student made up of a rat or something like that?

C: Well, it was one dead rat, but I am not going to give away too much.

S: Okay, I can see that could be a spoiler. So what do you mean by weird when you say teachers and students are weird?

C: Some of the teachers have a strange way to discipline students. There is one who turns students into an apple when she is angry with them, and then she eats them!

S: What? That sounds pretty terrible and irreversible!

C: Yeah. I told you they are weird.

S: But wait, then there is magic in this book?

C: Not sure. It is not described as magic, but just that these people behave this way. Really weird.

S: I see. So it is kind of absurd then.

C: I think you could say that.

S: But is it also funny?

C: Yes. I think the stories are pretty hilarious. Except when they are kind of scary because I would not want to be eaten as an apple by my teacher. But on the bright side, she gets eaten too.

S: Wait, don’t tell me everything!

C: But I want to!

S: Alright, why don’t you tell me something else instead? Tell me more about the book.

C: There are thirty chapters, one for each story of the Wayside School. But I think everything is happening on the 30th floor actually. And also there is no nineteenth floor. In fact that is the nineteenth story. It is about Miss Zarves who is supposed to be the teacher of the classroom on the nineteenth floor, but since there is no floor, there is no classroom, and so there is no Miss Zarves.

S: That almost sounds like a logic riddle!

C: Kind of.

S: But it is also kind of like how a lot of building in the United States don’t have a thirteenth floor.

C: Wait, I did not know that. Why is that?

S: A lot of people think 13 is an unlucky number, so they don’t like to be on a floor labeled thirteenth.

C: But after the twelfth floor comes the thirteenth, no?

S: True, if you are counting from the bottom, but it is not labeled 13, it is labeled 14.

C: That is strange.

S: Everything you are telling me reminds me of my favorite series from childhood: Le Petit Nicolas, about a little kid and his classmates and all kinds of funny things happening to them. In that world, too, sometimes really weird things happened, but nothing quite like a teacher turning children into apples.

C: Yes, I think you read a couple of those books to us when we were little. But I don’t think we understood all the jokes.

S: Yes, I think they seem to have aged quite a bit. The childhood they were talking about is very familiar to me, but it seems quite far from your experiences somehow. Okay, let us get back to the book. Did you like the book overall?

C: Yep. They are really funny. So I want to read the other books about Wayside School.

S: Maybe you will then. Did you know that Marshmallow has already reviewed a book by Louis Sachar?

C: Yep. I know she reviewed Holes.

S: Did you read that too?

C: Yep, and I also watched the movie. And it says on the cover of the book that the author is the author of Holes.

S: But of course Holes was written after this one, and you read this one after Holes.

C: True.

S: Did you also know that the author used to teach in an elementary school named Hillside and some of the ideas in the book might be related?

C: I did not know that! But it makes sense actually. There is a teacher character in the book named Louis.

S: But according to Wikipedia, his teaching days were not too exciting, so he had to make up a lot of stuff.

C: Well, that makes sense too. I’m guessing the teachers in his school did not turn students into apples and eat them.

S: I agree. So how would you describe this book in three words?

C: Short, sideways, outrageous.

S: I see what you did there! Okay, then. I think we can wrap this up now. What do you want to say to our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!