Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I refuse to feel guilty about Monday’s post; I did 6 loads of laundry, gave blood, made dinner, and attended a Driver’s Ed parent night that night. As for yesterday, my youngest and I were home all day with iffy tummies, and I did at least manage to order Christmas cards and get the majority of our Christmas letter written. (Ordering Christmas cards is no mean feat, by the way–I had no idea what a good deal Costco offered until they stopped offering it and partnered with Shutterfly instead.) I also finished listening to Gordon Korman’s Old School, another ‘Battle of the Books’ title that’s getting passed on to my youngest, in part to guarantee that I could write its review today.

So. If you haven’t read anything by Korman before, you should know that he’s generally over-the-top in what I assume is a self-aware kind of way. His characters aren’t two-dimensional, but some are fleshed out more than others, and many of them are (again, I’m assuming) intentionally representative types. Some of his stories work better than others because of this, but I have to say–he’s pretty much always a good time. Old School, in fact, is a perfect example of what Korman does well. You’ve got Dexter Foreman, whose parents work overseas while he lives with his grandma at her retirement village and gets homeschooled by the residents; he dresses, behaves, and thinks more like the senior citizens he lives with than the middle schooler he technically is. Enter a truancy officer–for reasons I shan’t spoil for you, his homeschooling isn’t quite official enough–and suddenly he’s plopped unwillingly down in the middle of Wolf’s Eye Middle School. Reactions to Dexter aren’t exactly enthusiastic, middle school being what it is, but he’s making it along (in his own unique way) until he bumps up against a school rule not designed for a kid like him and finds himself suspended. Which is great for him…or is it?

I’ll let you enjoy the rest of it on your own, which you definitely should do. Is it realistic? Heck no. Is it purely recreational fun during a season that, at its best, tends to be far busier than we’d like? Absolutely.

I can’t wait for my youngest to read it.