Sideways Stories from Wayside School

There'd been a terrible mistake. Wayside School was supposed to be built with thirty classrooms all next to each other in a row. Instead, they built the classrooms one on top of the other...thirty stories tall! (The builder said he was very sorry.)

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144 pages

Average rating: 4.73

15 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

E Clou
May 10, 2023
10/10 stars
One of my favorite books as a kid. I read this over and over again when I was in elementary school. I loved how each short story was focused on a different child in class so I felt like I was really in the classroom with them and knew all of them. Though the stories are all silly- some reminded me of actual frustrations at school.
Natalie
Apr 26, 2023
8/10 stars
I had this really wonderful idea to revisit some of my favorite childhood books, ones that I refused to part with even as an adult.

Guess what?

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Maybe that is too harsh, but I really had extremely high expectations.

I miss being a kid. I miss finding things like this absolutely hilarious. I hate that nostalgia is fueling most of the stars of this review for me because with each name that popped up, I could very clearly remember something about them. Sammy, Terrence, Louis, DeeDee, the three Erics...I felt like I had last read this book last week rather than well over 15 years ago. That's a pretty impressive book that can tuck away and hibernate in your mind that way. I loved how bizarre some of the chapters were (especially infamous #19). I was, however, a little more bored than I expected to be. I didn't chuckle like I thought I would. My adult self was wanting to badly to return to my little, naive self.

This book was definitely from a different time. A time when overprotective parents didn't riot against a book that practically encouraged name calling and violence. They kicked a boy over a fence?! OH MY! They called someone fat?! BURN THIS BOOK IMMEDIATELY! I'm glad we all had thick enough skin back then that we weren't offended - instead this sort of thing really tickled our fancy.

Strange. Original. Something I want to read to my kids someday (and if they don't love it, I'll probably call them stupid or fat or smelly).

5 Stars from little Natalie.
3 Stars from fun-hating grown up Natalie.
Compromise of 4 Stars

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