Sideways Stories from Wayside School

By Louis Sachar

Book Overview

Bestselling and Newbery Medal-winning author Louis Sachar knows how to make readers laugh. And there are laughs galore in perennial favorite Sideways Stories from Wayside School, the first book in the series

Accidentally built sideways and standing thirty stories high (the builder said he was very sorry for the mistake), Wayside School has some of the wackiest classes in town, especially on the thirtieth floor. That's where you'll meet Bebe, the fastest draw in art class; John, who only reads upside down; Myron, the best class president ever; and Sammy, the new kid--he's a real rat.

More than fifteen million readers have laughed at the clever and hilarious stories of Wayside School. So what are you waiting for? Come visit Wayside School Kids 7 to 13 will zoom through these chapter books--laughing their way through the fast, funny, silly but relatable stories.

This funny chapter book series includes:

Sideways Stories from Wayside SchoolWayside School Is Falling DownWayside School Gets a Little StrangerAnd now also Wayside School Beneath the Cloud of Doom, the brand-new, fourth installment in the series, and the first in twenty-five years

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380698714
• ISBN13: 9780380698714
• Release Date: March 2019
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 7.5"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

Happy to share Sideways Stories from Wayside School with my daughter

As a child I read this book over and over again. Now I'm reading it to my 7 year old who giggles at the absurdity and cleverness.

Just How I Remember

Bought this to read to my kids. Paper feels like newsprint and like it was a mass production print, but the stories are why I bought it. Can't wait to read this again with the next generation.

Ordered this book for my son for School

He liked this book for school. Was funny he said

BEST Series for Kids with Adults

I adore this entire series. I loved them as a kid and have enjoyed revisiting with my own 7-year-old. A lot of punny humor, twisty jokes, and hijinks. This is recommended by my 8-year-old self as well as my 30-something self. Enjoy the fun humor!

So Funny

I am an adult and I really enjoyed this book. It is basically a quirky book with a very short story for each of the students in one particular class, plus the two teachers. (The first teacher is mean and comes to a funny demise.) So there are thirty short stories. It is silly humor. For example, the mean teacher turns the students into apples, a girl tries to sell her toes (unsuccessfully), a dead rat disguises itself as a student, and so on. Warning: The humor is black humor, but hilarious. So you may want to pre-read this book to see if it is appropriate for your child. But despite being black humor, everything ends well and for the best, sort of like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or Junie B. Jones. This is not a "sweet" book, but it is fun!

Funny, Funny...

It opens with children-turned apples turning their teacher, Mrs. Gorf, into an apple and giving her to their gym teacher, Louis (the author) to eat.Need I say more?This book is hilarious. I could just see kids I know going to a school thirty stories tall, with a classroom on each side, struggling through torturous mosquito bites, a teacher who thinks you're a monkey, and all sorts of kooky and downright hilarious characters. I could read this over and over. It is so realistic, yet oh so spacy. I first read this book when I was about seven or eight. I have read it over and over with each of my five younger siblings and it gets funnier each time. Sachar has a way of appealing to all audiences.Parents, the Wayside school series is the easiest way to get boob-tube obsessed kids to read a good book for a change. And it is a good book!

Creepy-funny

Um, I liked SSFWS, all right, but I found the book to be very odd. Not purple-people-eater odd, but a-little-too-true odd. The book isn't just random silliness (although it does seem like it at times), but also very carefully disguised social commentary. I would liken it to Shel Silverstein or Dr. Seuss, in that, what at first seems like kooky insanity begins to morph into something much more, not sinister, but just a little too close to home. What really struck me about this book was that, despite the strangeness of his tales, Sancar obviously has an insiders eye when it comes to children, or a really good memory. The tales of the school tells about not only the students, but the teachers as well, with remarkable insight into the bizarre, rarely accurately observed world of elementary school in American suburbia. Oh sure, there are millions of stories about it, but few dare tread where this author goes with his story, and the results are, well, creepy-funny in a good way. It's like the anti-children's book, unrepentantly ammoral and without a tidy "happy ending" for each story. Oh yes, and, by the way, there's a story of the book for each story of the school. Few seem to notice that. The strangest thing about the book is not how the school is built, but how close the author consistantly gets to the things that make grade-schoolers tick. Few adults could understand how important it is for kids to get outside to recess fast enough to get the "good playgroud balls", or remember the strange kind of guilt that comes from stealing another kid's lunch. If you haven't read it, I would reccommend trying it at least once, if only to see how much you find yourself vividly remembering random episodes of your childhood in frightening detail.

I have read this a million times and just gets funnier!

This book was first read to me in the first grade. I am now in 8th, and have read it at least a million times. It is a hillarious book that can help kids see how everyone is different. Besides that, it's just so darn funny. I have read many books by Louis Sachar, and in my opinion he is the best author ever.