Middle School – The Worst Years of My Life

James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts's Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life is a laugh-out-loud school story for 11 year olds about a boy who decides to break every rule.

What happens

Rafe Khatchadorian is starting sixth grade at Hills Village Middle School, and it goes wrong within five minutes. Miller the Killer wants his seat. Then every other seat. Then Rafe ends up on the floor.

At the first assembly, the vice principal reads out the whole Code of Conduct, very slowly. All twenty-six pages. That's when Rafe has his Big Idea.

He's going to break every single rule in the book and score points for each one. Chewing gum, running in the corridor, rewriting Shakespeare in the middle of English. His best friend Leo, who does the drawing while Rafe does the talking, is right there egging him on.

Rafe tells you the whole thing himself, and he's a brilliant narrator. He's cheeky and he knows it. At one point he stops to check you're still his friend after a particularly embarrassing confession, which is oddly sweet.

Home isn't much easier. His mum works double shifts at a diner, and her fiancé, Bear, spends most of his time on the sofa shouting at Rafe and his little sister Georgia. Rafe adds a rule to his game that nobody gets hurt, because he doesn't want to be anything like Bear.

That's what makes it more than a joke book. Under all the fire alarms and detentions, Rafe is lonely, and he hides a lot from the grown-ups who could help. Anyone who's ever felt invisible at school will probably get why he does what he does.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

The bullying is quite physical (Miller shoves Rafe's face into a drinking fountain) and Bear is loud and unkind at home, including calling Rafe a freak. Rafe also lies to his mum and deletes a message from school. Nothing is described in a graphic way, but a sensitive reader might find the home scenes the harder part.

A reader who likes a funny narrator with real troubles underneath will race through it.

What to read next

If they'd like another sixth grader surviving a tough new school, Public School Superhero is by the same pair. Kenny is scared stiff at Union Middle, so inside his head he becomes a superhero called Stainlezz Steel.