Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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).

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.

My grade-school kids love the whole series of these books, either when they're reading by themselves or when I'm reading to them.

But this one is my favorite. "Stryker Smith is fighting Evil under the bus!", and the mini-eulogy by the kids "It's hard to be alive/When you don't have a head", I still can't help laughing just thinking about it. And we find out exactly why Neil Crouch is "Neil the nude kid".