Today I feel well rested though so I have spent the last couple of hours reading. My book is due tomorrow at the library. I'm trying to be a more responsible library user and not have to pay library fines (have only paid 60¢ so far this year! ....pretty good eh?!)
So, I have this book out called The Fourth Stall. It's hilarious! Like I said, it's due tomorrow so I decided I better get it done. The story is quite funny, so it isn't a rough way to spend my morning. I finished it, closed the book and laid it on the table where I've parked myself outside The Good Earth at the pool....and suddenly I realize, it's Part II???!! How did I read the whole darn book and not realize I was reading the second one first? What a bozo!
It's Part 1 that is due tomorrow. Good thing it's Thursday. Tonight I wait for Peirce at the pool, then take him to Cubs and wait, then wait for Jill to finish up her activity - in all, about four hours of potential reading time. I just might try to finish book one!
Anyway, the Fourth Stall (Part II!) is a hilarious book. I totally recommend it. It is about some boys in 6th grade at a middle school who run a business. They solve problems - for a fee. The book is kind of middle school Sopranos style - only without the swearing a sex (although there is a girl in the story who the books seem to start to compete for her attention....but they're 6th grade boys - so that doesn't go very well).
I just kept chuckling all the way through it because to kids this would all seem so plausible! Sometimes I watch my kids in my class (Grade 3) and wish I could get into their heads when I see them slinking down the hall as though they're on a undercover mission - but really they're just going to the bathroom....but even going to the bathroom is an adventure when you're a kid! They create the adventures!
Here are a couple of passages that typified how hilarious this book is:
(Page 215, chapter 21) "Kitten was easily the most notoriously dangerous bully in school history. Which was pretty impressive considering that he had only gone to this school for a few years. Everybody, young and old - even you at this point - knew the dangers of crossing Kitten.
"You know who this is, right?" I said.
The littel first-grade ringleader nodded slowly.
"We're taking these tires for my new office. And if you tattle on us, then you'll have to deal with my good pal Kitten here. Understand?"
The little kids stood there staring with wide, white eyes.
I gave a nod to Kitten. He took a few steps forward and the flock of first graders scrambled. They ran off in all directions, some of them so frantically that they fell several times before making their actual getaway.
I shook Kitten's hand, pressing a five-dollar bill into it.
He nodded and wandered off without saying a word."
(page 238, Chapter 23) I tried to stay away from the skating rink as much as possible. It wasn't really a dangerous area of the school in terms of bullies, not like the teeter-totters, which was pretty much skid row, but the skating rink was perhaps the most dangerous area in the school because that's where all the eight-grade girls hung out. Nobody knew for sure exactly what they did down there, but most believed they spent a lot of their time talking about different ways to make boys so confused they cried. Some kids also said the girls lit a bunch of scented candles and performed sacrifices on small animals to help them discover what the newest fashions would be and which boy would be the hottest one the next summer. That didn't seem too likely to me, but you never could know for sure when it came to girls. Because as I've said before, more than a few times: in school, girls are more dangerous than shotguns."
You should read The Fourth Stall. It's hilarious!
1 comment:
5am??? that's crazy!!! good for you though. sounds like a fun book.
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