My Weird School #11: Mrs. Kormel Is Not Normal! [Paperback]

Dan Gutman (Author), Jim Paillot (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 7 and up | Grade Level: 2 and up | Series: My Weird School

Something weird is going on!

First the school bus gets a flat tire, and then Mrs. Kormel is totally lost in the middle of nowhere! Mrs. Kormel is the weirdest bus driver in the history of the world, and she's driving everyone crazy!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dan Gutman has always been a baseball fanatic. He played in Little League as a kid, and one of the first magazine articles he ever sold explained the science behind the spitball, the scuffball, and corked bats. When he thought about the T206 Honus Wagner—the most valuable baseball card in the world—he began to write honus & me, his first Baseball Card Adventure. That book introduced Joe Stoshack—Stosh—a kid who can use baseball cards to travel through time and meet the game’s greatest players. Stosh has since gone on many amazing, fast-paced adventures, most recently to try to save Roberto Clemente.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 7 and up
  
• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (February 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060822295
• ISBN-13: 978-0060822293
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.2 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #196,742 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #52 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > Authors & Illustrators, A-Z > ( G ) > Gutman, Dan

More About the Author

This is hard. I'm a pretty regular Jersey guy who spent fifteen years trying to write newspaper articles, magazine articles, screenplays, books for adults, and just about everything else before I discovered the one thing I'm good at--writing fiction for kids. I aim for kids who DON'T like to read, and hopefully the kids who DO like to read will enjoy my stuff too. For all the gory details about me, check out my web site.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Matthew's review, March 4, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: My Weird School #11: Mrs. Kormel Is Not Normal! (Paperback)

Mrs. Kormel is not Normal is about a crazy bus teacher that doesn't even know where the new kid's house is. The funny thing about the book is that they weren't allowed to kneel and crouch in the bus and somebody said if your name is crouch or kneel can you kneel or crouch on the bus and the bus driver said yes. Then Andrea said there is nobody named kneel or crouch but it ended up that the new kid was named Neil crouch. I would recommend this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Caution: Lots of "dumb" and "stupid" in the text, April 22, 2008

By 

Robin Lapre (tenn) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: My Weird School #11: Mrs. Kormel Is Not Normal! (Paperback)

I am all for books that are cool enough for young boys to read on their own - heck - we have every Capt. Underpants book in creation... but I was a little turned off by the text in this book. In the first few chapters alone, there were lots of "I hate her" and "She is stupid", "She is dumb", etc, etc. I'm not a total prude about these words - but the reading level of this book strikes me as "early 2nd grade"- meaning that this book is most likely to be read by 1st and 2nd graders. The negativity seemed a bit excessive to me. Also - it's one thing to think your school is weird, but the main character AJ goes into some detail about why he HATES school, talks about how mean the fifth graders are, and accuses another child of being a "brown-noser". (Try explaining brown-nosing to your 7 year old.) I just felt that it was generally a bit negative for the 1st and 2nd graders - most of whom still really like school, or you at least WANT them to like school at that age. Let's not tarnish their idealism already! Even Capt. Underpants is pretty upbeat and optimistic throughout its potty humor. I would not necessarily have minded all the "hate", "stupid", and "dumb" comments had my son been a few years older, at least in 3rd or 4th grade - but really, the reading level is not that high, and by age 9 or 10,there are much better books for them to be reading. Otherwise, I agree with the other reviewers that the book is a quick read, and humorous .. but not necessarily the kind of jaded humor that I felt like a 1st grader needed to read (nor did he really enjoy that type of humor).

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Weird School RULES!, January 11, 2007

By 

C. Beard - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: My Weird School #11: Mrs. Kormel Is Not Normal! (Paperback)

My ten and seven-year-old boys LOVE reading the books in this series. They can completely relate to the main character, A.J., and his trademark opening line: My name is A.J. and I hate school". Of course, A.J.'s school is a fabulous place for boys and he can't help but learn things. All the books are quick and enjoyable reads.

This episode is about the bus driver, Mrs. Kormel, and a disastrous day on the way to school. My boys and I were laughing out loud through most of this book. We liked it so much, we gave a copy to our busdriver so she could enjoy it with her sons.