My Weird School 8 – Ms. LaGrange Is Strange!

Dan Gutman's Ms. LaGrange Is Strange is a messy, food-filled school comedy for 8 year olds about a boy who'd rather go blind than eat a carrot.

What happens

It's the eighth My Weird School book. The grumpy lunch lady at Ella Mentry School slips in some spilt apple juice, shouts "I quit!" and storms off. So who's going to make lunch tomorrow? (The boys are fairly sure they'll starve.)

At first it's Mr. Klutz, the bald principal, wearing a hairnet. Then the real replacement arrives. Ms. LaGrange is from France, wears an apron saying "Make Lunch, Not War" and turns the lunchroom into a café with tablecloths and fake candles.

She also squirts A.J. in the face with a spray bottle when he won't try her peas and carrots. And she writes a strange code in the mashed potatoes. What on earth does YAWYE mean?

A.J., Ryan and Michael have plenty of guesses (none of them close). Michael reckons she might have locked the real lunch lady in the freezer. So the boys sneak back into school after home time to check, which goes about as well as you'd expect.

Meanwhile there's a much bigger problem. A.J. gets invited to Andrea's birthday party. It's a tea party. And he's the only boy there!

A.J. tells the whole thing straight to you, and he's completely sure he's right about everything. French fries are French. Food comes in cans and boxes, not out of the ground. His jokes in class get no laughs "even though it was funny". Readers will be giggling at how wrong he is.

If you've got a fussy eater at home, this could be a very good one to share. A.J.'s stand-off over ONE single pea is a big moment.

Expect lots of "dumbhead", "crybaby" and A.J. saying he hates Andrea, plus a huge food fight. It's all very cartoonish, but it's good to know it's there if you'd rather your reader didn't pick up the name-calling.

What to read next

If they're after more of the principal who'll do absolutely anything for his school, try Mr. Klutz Is Nuts. He skateboards in, crash-lands in a bush and offers some very silly rewards to get everybody learning.