Prepoia's Full Review: Louis Sachar - Wayside School Is Falling Down
Wayside School is Falling Down is my favorite Louis Sachar book! There are also two others about Wayside School that use and refer to the same characters that we grow to love in this first book.
I first became aware of this book when I substituted in a classroom and part of my day was to read aloud to third grade students a chapter from this book. One chapter and I was hooked on Wayside. I bought two of the books, this one and Wayside Stories and carried them with me as part of my "substitute teacher's magic bag of tricks." The great thing about them, in this situation, is that whether you read one chapter or five, there is a completeness at the end of each chapter, so you can stop and you've shared a story with each chapter.
For this reason, they are also wonderful books to read to your own children, especially at night when you want to read a chapter and not have to worry about recapping each time you read the next chapter.
I'm not much of a ham, but this book lets and encourages the reader to deliver the text in dramatic and fun ways as you go for the laugh. And each of these books have laughs a plenty!
A story summary is hard to give. It is about the unique (but surprisingly familiar) students of Wayside School (like the boy who can't add and his funny way of learning how; their mean teacher that comes back as a witch to plague them; their really nice teacher replacement; the school janitor (who is really Sachar as narrator of the tales); and all of the funny things that happens in their top floor (they seldom have time to make it down to the playground for recess since their classroom is so far up the stairs) classroom.
Third graders love this book. Its humor is concrete enough for them to enjoy it, but........the REALLY great thing is that there is also subtle humor that older kids and adults enjoy just as much as the younger kids. I am now teaching sixth grade and the kids love it when we have a few minutes and I pull it out to read a chapter aloud to them. I have them listen for something funny that they've never "gotten" or understood before and they find new things to laugh about and love.
Each time I read a chapter, I find something new to enjoy too. To me this is an indicator of a great writer; that each time a person reads and re-reads a book, they enjoy new things about it.
Sachar also writes books for the older elementary age group, one example being, "There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom", but the Wayside Books are the best he's written. My last original Wayside book finally lost its last page and I've purchased a new one this year.
If you want to buy a book (you won't want to return it to a library) for multiple ages, that expands kids(and adults) imaginations and humor then this is the book for you. This is the best book I've found to continue those "reading to your child" moments well past the pre-school age.
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