For someone who didn’t care much for pencils, books and teachers’ dirty looks growing up, I’m not exactly sure how I birthed a school-loving bookworm.
Not only does my second grader enjoy attending school, she also loves reading books about kids and their adventures in the halls of higher learning.
That said, I suppose I shouldn’t be the least bit surprised that my 7-year-old is addicted to Dan Gutman’s silly series, My Weirder School. The collection of creative craziness features characters that will crack you up and leave you wanting more. In this case, you’re in luck because Gutman shows no signs of stopping his literary antics.
The first book in the series, My Weirder School #1: Miss Child Has Gone Wild! takes young readers on a 112-page ride they won’t soon forget.
The story is unraveled by a third grader named A.J., who puts his spin on Every.Little.Thing. from being forced to hold hands with his girly-girl Zoo Buddy to sharing potty jokes that your little reader will be repeating well after she’s done with the book.
Gutman has an uncanny ability to channel a third grader. He perfectly pens lines about blabbing grown ups, boy/girl relationships, and has mastered the art of exaggeration as told by an 8-year-old: “Andrea and I had to walk about a million hundred miles to Penguin Paradise. She was holding my hand the whole time. Ugh, disgusting!”
And what of the mystery woman known simply as Miss Child?
For starters, she is a lot more complex than her name.
We learn from A.J. that he and the rest of his classmates at Ella Mentry School won a weird contest and are being rewarded with a trip to the zoo.
That’s how they meet Miss Child.
Dunt, dunt, dun…
A.J. classifies Miss Child as “the weirdest zookeeper in the history of the world” because among other things, she thinks animals are smarter than people and that elephants can paint pictures. Oh, and she wears snakes as scarves and keeps spiders in her pocket. You know, for fun.
Did I mention someone falls into a cage with a lion?
Find out if the person gets out alive by diving into Miss Child Has Gone Wild! The book is available on HarperCollins’ website, as well as in discount retailers nationwide.
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