Read Misadventures of Max Crumbly 01 – Locker Hero free for 7 days. £7.99/month after - less than a paperback.
Rachel Renee Russell's Locker Hero is a funny diary-style story for 9 year olds, written by a boy who's been stuffed inside his own school locker.
Max Crumbly has just started at South Ridge Middle School. Until now he's been homeschooled by his grandma, a retired kindergarten teacher (think naptimes and sippy cups, which he is NOT happy about).
He wants a normal school life more than anything. The trouble is Doug "Thug" Thurston, who's decided Max is his favourite target. And that's how Max comes to be writing this journal by torchlight, crammed in his locker, needing a wee very badly.
Max is brilliant company. He's a massive superhero fan who draws his own comics, and he tells his story like one. Every so often he stops to narrate himself as the hero trapped by his evil archnemesis, which is very funny when he's actually a boy stuck in a locker.
You're right there inside his head. He'll panic about his nervous bladder one minute and plan his rap career the next. He wonders why he got "panic and pee" when everyone else got fight or flight!
There are lovely little moments too. Thug is suddenly really friendly whenever Max wears his dad's gas mask, because he thinks Max is Darth Vader's son. And there's a girl called Erin, who's the only person at school who's bothered to talk to him, and he's desperate not to look like a weirdo in front of her (it doesn't go well).
Max is in eighth grade, so he's a bit older than this shelf. The bullying is a big part of the story. Max gets shoved into his locker more than once, and Thug threatens him with a beating. He also has asthma and panic attacks, and he uses his inhaler while he's shut in.
There's plenty of toilet humour, sick and wee included. If your reader is very anxious about school, or about being picked on, it's worth reading a bit together first.
If your reader loves a narrator who keeps making things worse for himself, though, this is a great pick. Underneath it's about a boy who's scared and still decides not to let a friend down.
If they want more from the same world, try the first Dork Diaries book. Max mentions his friend Brandon's pal Nikki, a girl at another school who's entering an art competition, and that book is Nikki's own diary.
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