Because of Mr. Terupt

Rob Buyea's Because of Mr. Terupt is a school story for 11 year olds about seven classmates and the brand-new teacher who seems to have every one of them worked out.

What happens

It's Mr Terupt's first year of teaching. Peter is delighted, because rookies don't know the tricks. So he takes the bathroom pass again and again, until Mr Terupt tells the whole class he'll have to call him Peter the Pee-er.

That's the moment Peter starts thinking school might actually be fun.

You get the year from seven children in turns. Peter the joker. Jessica, new from California, who writes her chapters like scenes in a play. Luke, the brain. Alexia, who decides who the new girl is allowed to be friends with. Jeffrey, who can't stand school. Danielle, who says her prayers at bedtime and cries at home a lot. And quiet Anna, who would rather nobody noticed her at all.

Mr Terupt's lessons are brilliant. Every letter is worth money (a is a penny, z is twenty-six cents) and the class hunts for words worth exactly a dollar. A plant experiment sets off the fire alarm. Then they count the blades of grass on the school football pitch, and get an answer of 77,537,412.

Reading it is like being let in on seven different versions of the same week. Alexia's chapter shows you exactly how she starts a girl war, and Danielle's shows you how it feels on the receiving end. Who hasn't been the one left out at playtime?

It's worth knowing about the heavier side, though. Danielle gets called fat again and again. Anna's mum was sixteen when Anna was born, and some of the grown-ups still look down on them both. When the class hears about visiting a classroom for children with special needs, Peter uses a slur about disabled children. Mr Terupt pulls him up on it straight away, but the word is printed. There's plenty of toilet humour too, and every so often one of the children hints that something is coming later in the year.

It sits right at the top of the shelf, and the American school words (fifth grade, recess) come thick and fast. For a reader who's ready for a classroom that feels real, it's a warm, funny book with a teacher you'll wish you'd had.

What to read next

If hearing one school year from lots of voices is what hooks them, The Perfect Score is Rob Buyea too. A group of sixth graders take turns telling their year, and one of them writes it all up as a lawyer's briefs.