Tag: Caramel’s reviews

Caramel has recently been reading Louis Sachar’s Wayside School series. Today he reviews the fourth and last book in the series, Wayside School Beneath the Cloud of Doom, published only in 2020.

(You might like to read Caramel’s reviews of Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Wayside School Is Falling Down, and Wayside School Gets A Little Stranger before moving on.)

Sprinkles: Okay Caramel. I think we finally came to the end of these Wayside School books.

Caramel: Yes. Unfortunately.

S: This one was written so many years after the previous one. There are almost twenty-five years in between. Did you notice anything?

C: No! This book picks up where the other one ended. At least the students and the teachers are all the same.

S: That is interesting. So then there could not have been twenty years in between the two books, in the story world.

C: Exactly.

S: Apparently the author wrote this new book because he was worried about a lot of things going on in the world. Is the book itself about sad or scary things?

C: Not really. It is just as funny and wacky as the other books.

S: But there is this cloud of doom? Tell me a bit about that.

C: The cloud of doom is a weird cloud that makes everyone feel anxious and unhappy.

S: Hmm. The cloud seems to appear some time in Chapter 8. Then it hangs around till the end of the book, right?

C: Right. But still a lot of funny and strange things happen.

S: So the book is organized into thirty chapters as the previous ones, right?

C: Yep. Yes.

S: Can you pick one, maybe your favorite, and tell me a bit about that?

C: I can tell you about Chapter 10. It is called “Stuck”. One of the kids gets her face stuck in a weird shape, and the whole chapter, all the people in the school try to help her get her face unstuck.

S: That is a weird one Caramel! The author comes up with so many weird ideas!

C: Yes. He also has a funny idea about how paper clips are made. Apparently it takes four people to make one paper clip.

S: Really?

C: No. But apparently that is what Ms. Jewls tells her students so they won’t lose the paper clips she gives them.

S: And this is the good teacher, right?

C: Well she is relatively kinder to them than the very first teacher from the first book. The kids like her a lot. And she likes them too.

S: Well, those are good qualities in a teacher.

C: Yep.

S: So if you were to describe this book using three words, how would you do it?

C: Funny, wacky, downright outrageous.

S: Hmm, I am assuming you mean that in a positive way?

C: Of course!

S: Okay, so do you think there will be a fifth Wayside School book?

C: I hope so.

S: I guess we can hope that the author will write another one some day. But in the meantime did you know that there are a couple puzzle books he wrote about the Wayside School?

C: Oh, I like puzzles!

S: I did see one of them before. They are cool puzzles. Maybe we will take a look one day.

C: That would be fun!

S: Okay Caramel. It is probably time to wrap up this review. What do you want to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

Caramel has already reviewed Sideways Stories from Wayside School and Wayside School Is Falling Down, both by Louis Sachar. Today he reviews the third book in the series, Wayside School Gets A Little Stranger, first published in 1996. As usual, Sprinkles is taking notes and asking followup questions.

Sprinkles: Caramel, you have already introduced us to Wayside School in your review of Sideways Stories from Wayside School. And then you told us that the second book, Wayside School Is Falling Down, kind of ended on a cliffhanger.

Caramel: Well, the school was overrun by cows and so everyone had to leave the building.

S: Yes, I remember. So does this book pick up where the last one left us?

C: Yes, the first chapter is about how Louis cleaned up the mess and made it safe for students and teachers to come back. And then all kinds of weird stuff happen again.

S: Tell us about some of them.

C: Miss Zarves from the nineteenth story finds out that there is still a cow in her classroom.

S: Wait, I am still not sure I understand this nineteenth story because it does not exist and yet it does?

C: You think I understand it? I don’t either. but in the second book there was a girl named Alison who found her way to Miss Zarves’ classroom and in this book, too, there is a chapter for the same classroom.

S: An d I bet it is the nineteenth chapter, right?

C: Yes, of course!

S: Of course. So what else happens?

C: So Mrs. Jewls is pregnant, and so she goes on maternity leave, and so the kids on the thirtieth floor have substitute teachers. And all of them are evil and horrible.

S: Tell me more.

C: the first one is Mrs. Gorf’s son.

S: I remember Mrs. Gorf. That is the one who turned children into apples, right?

C: Right. So Mr. Gorf steals children’s voices. And he is pretty terrible.

S: Sounds scary.

C: I guess it makes the class quiet.

S: Well, I guess.

C: Anyways, then there is Miss Drazil and she is not too bad but Louis dislikes her, because she was his teacher, and she hated him, and she makes him miserable. But in the end it seems like she is actually not that bad and Louis was the one who made her miserable.

S: I see.

C: Then there is a third teacher, Miss Nogard. And she can hear people’s thoughts and she uses them against the children, making them all doubt themselves and be unhappy.

S: She sounds horrible.

C: She is. Until the end. At the end she listens to a baby’s thoughts, and apparently a baby’s thoughts are all full of love, so Miss Nogard also fills up with love.

S: I guess that is good.

C: Yes. And in the end Mrs. Jewls comes back, too. The baby is hers.

S: I see.

S: So did you notice that the three substitute teachers’ names were animal names spelled backwards? Gorf is frog, Drazil is lizard, and Nogard is Dragon.

C: Yes.I did not think of Gorf in the earlier books. But I began to suspect something when I read about Drazil, it sounded like Brazil but not quite. And then Nogard is DRAGON backwards. And I know that of course.

S: Of course. So tell me. Did you enjoy this book too? I did see that once you began reading it, you could not drop it until you finished.

C: It is a quick and very fun read.

S: That is great Caramel. Did you know there is a fourth book, published only a couple years ago?

C: Yep. And I want to read that next.

S: I am sure that can be arranged.

C: Great! Make it so. Please.

S: I can see you channeling your inner Jean-Luc Picard there. Okay, we will see. Let us wrap up this review then. What would you like to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!

A couple weeks ago, Caramel reviewed Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar. Today he is talking about the second book of the Wayside School books, Wayside School Is Falling Down, first published in 1989. As usual, Sprinkles is taking notes and asking questions.

Sprinkles: So Caramel, you told us a bit about the first book about Wayside School a couple weeks ago. What happens in this second book?

Caramel: Well, there are about thirty more stories about this weird school, which is built sideways, so is thirty stories tall and in each story there is only one classroom.

S: Yes, I remember that. And the first book had thirty chapters, too, each about a specific character, and they all were characters from the classroom on the thirtieth floor.

C: Well, the characters in this book are the same people. And there are really thirty chapters, but three of them are labeled 19 and the three Erics are all together in the chapter numbered 20, 21, and 22.

S: That’s weird. Tell me more about those three chapters labeled 19.

C: They are about this girl named Allison and she gets assigned to the nineteenth floor and Miss Zarves’ class.

S: Wait, but you told me neither of those things exist.

C: Yep.

S: So how is that supposed to happen?

C: I don’t know. But in these chapters there is a Miss Zarves, and some other students of hers. Allison somehow falls into this magical nineteenth story, and then falls back out of it.

S: Maybe it is a dream?

C: Maybe, but it is not really clear.

S: So are the stories just as wacky as they were in the first one?

C: Yes, if not more.

S: So this was funnier?

C: Yes.

S: Isn’t it nice when a sequel is even better than the original?

C: Yep.

S: Okay, so if you were to use three words to describe this book, would “wacky” be one of them?

C: Yes.

S: What about the other two words?

C: “School” because it is about a school and the students and the teachers there. And maybe “confusing” because if a building has thirty stories but the nineteenth is missing, then isn’t the building really twenty-nine stories?

S: I see what you mean. But I guess it is the same with buildings that do not have their thirteenth floors. Anyways, so we can describe this book with the three-word phrase “wacky confusing school”, right?

C: Right.

S: This edition of the book comes with some illustrations. What do you think of them?

C: I’d say they are just as wacky as the book.

S: Agreed. So apparently the author has written a couple other Wayside School books. Do you think you will read those, too?

C: Yep. I want to. Because these are really funny. But also because this book ends kind of in the air. The school is invaded by cows so everybody has to move out. So I want to know if they will get back and what other wacky things they will do next.

S: Okay, let us aim for that then. This might be a good place to wrap up this review. What do you want to tell our readers?

C: Stay tuned for more book bunny reviews!