My Weird School 14 – Miss Holly Is Too Jolly!

Dan Gutman's Miss Holly Is Too Jolly is a festive school comedy for 8 year olds about a Spanish teacher who'd like to celebrate every holiday at once.

What happens

It's book fourteen of My Weird School. A.J. hates school, and now there's Spanish too. Miss Holly dances into the first lesson playing a guitar with a basket of fruit on her head. It's not even December yet and she's already wishing everyone a happy Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

Her vocabulary lists are VERY odd. Toupee, lifeguard, toilet. Why? So you can tell someone the lifeguard's toupee fell in the toilet, obviously.

Then the head teacher, Mr. Klutz, comes down from the ceiling of the school hall in a sleigh as "Santa Klutz" (his jokes are terrible and everyone has to laugh anyway). The school is putting on its first ever holiday pageant, with Miss Holly in charge.

The boys want nothing to do with it. They're definitely not being elves. A.J.'s genius fix is to go as Elvis instead, so he, Ryan and Michael end up on stage crew. Their big job is lowering Mr. Klutz in his sleigh at the grand finale. What could possibly go wrong?

Meanwhile he's drawn Emily in the class Secret Santa. And the mistletoe Miss Holly keeps taping up is about to give him the most horrible moment in the history of the world. (Andrea is involved. That's all we'll say.)

It's literally like being inside A.J.'s head. He'll tell you something amazing happened, refuse to tell you what, then tell you anyway. His letter to Santa includes some friendly advice about losing weight. The chapters are short and there's a joke every few lines, so it's easy going for a child who likes their laughs quick.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

One lunchtime chapter is the boys arguing about whether Santa is real. Ryan is sure he isn't, and nobody settles it. If you've still got a believer at home, you might want to read that bit first.

A.J. also tells you the Hanukkah story his own way (there's pizza and video games in it), all played for laughs. For a child who's well past the Santa question, it's a very silly countdown to the holidays with plenty of chaos.

What to read next

For another holiday with the same gang, try It's Halloween, I'm turning green, where the big plan is collecting as many sweets as humanly possible.