Friday 19 October 2012

Sideways Stories from Wayside School - Louis Sachar and Adam McCauley

Sideways Stories from Wayside School 
Louis Sachar (Author) 
Adam McCauley (Illustrator) 
ISBN 9780380731480 

 I need to be completely honest; this was the first of Sachar's books I have read that I did not love. I was really looking forward to the Wayside School books but after reading this one have not bothered with the others yet and they dropped way down in my pile of to-be-read books. Maybe I came in expecting too much, maybe the absurd does not ring for me in children's literature? But for whatever reason this book is towards the bottom of my list of the 120 I have read the first half of this year. The book contains 30 chapters and each chapter is a different story about Wayside school. Each chapter is also named after the teacher, student or students that are the focus of the story. In the introduction it states: "Wayside School was accidentally built sideways. It was supposed to be only one story high, with thirty classrooms all in a row. Instead it is thirty stories high, with one classroom on each story. The builder said he was very sorry. The children at Wayside like having a sideways school. They have an extra-large playground." They may like the building and the playground but I did not like the stories. In fact when I went to write my review not a single story stood out enough to comment upon it. And that is my sideways review of the stories from wayside school! 


Books by Louis Sachar:
Sideways Stories From Wayside School:
Wayside School is Falling Down (1989)
Sideways Arithmetic From Wayside School (1989)
More Sideways Arithmetic From Wayside School (1994)
Wayside School Gets A Little Stranger (1995)
Wayside School Beneath the Cloud of Doom (2020)

Marvin Redpost:
Kidnapped at Birth? (1992)
Why Pick on Me? (1993)
Is He a Girl? (1993)
Alone In His Teacher's House (1994)
Class President(1999)
A Flying Birthday Cake? (1999)
Super Fast Out of Control! (2000)
A Magic Crystal? (2000)

Holes:
Holes (1998)
Stanley Yelnats' Survival Guide to Camp Green Lake (2003)
Small Steps (2006)

Other Books:
Johnny's in the Basement (1981)
Someday Angeline (1983)
Sixth Grade Secrets (1987)
There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom (1988)
The Boy Who Lost His Face (1989)
Dogs Don't Tell Jokes (1991)
Monkey Soup (1992) (illustrated by Cat Bowman Smith)
The Cardturner (May 11, 2010)
Fuzzy Mud (2015)
 

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