Tori Luthringer

I have been so disappointed by this book. The story is an interesting one to be sure. But as a middle school teacher in her tenth year, I am so disturbed by how Korman portrays adolescent children. The narrators change, but they all sound identical, which is snide and sarcastic. Where is the depth? The empathy? The wit that I’ve seen year after year in our students? These children deserve better voices. No eighth grader has ever used “eat crow” or “get square.” The inner and spoken dialogue in this book is so inauthentic. How much time has Mr. Korman spent listening to teens? And don’t even get me started on the adults in this book. The mothers are all overbearing, the father is abhorrent (but not believable) and the teachers are portrayed as ignorant fools who let sociopathic children wreak havoc on a school with little consequence. Who would decide that an appropriate punishment for juvenile delinquents was to run around unsupervised at a retirement community? I have read countless children’s and YA books. I hear children’s conversations daily. This portrayal of teens is such a disservice.