My Weird School 11 – Mrs. Kormel Is Not Normal!

Dan Gutman's Mrs. Kormel Is Not Normal is a very silly story for 8 year olds about a school bus that takes all day to get to school.

What happens

It's the eleventh My Weird School book. A.J. still hates school, and it's Monday, which is the worst day of the week. There's a big spelling test that afternoon and he hasn't studied for it (at all).

Mrs. Kormel drives the bus. She wears a crash helmet and she's inventing her own secret language. "Bingle boo" means hello and "limpus kidoodle" means sit down. When she shouts something even she won't translate, the boys decide it must be a bad word.

Then Mr. Klutz rings. The bus has to go and collect a pupil from the far side of town, and by the time the message has been whispered down the rows, they're off to pick up a "nude kid". Nobody can talk about anything else.

Out comes a map. Then a detour, then rain, then a road that's more like a swamp. Soon they're in the middle of nowhere, and every lesson they miss is a win for A.J. Show and Share goes, then maths, then reading time. Could the spelling test be next?

His Striker Smith action figure comes along for the ride too. It doesn't end well for Striker (there's a funeral, with a poem).

The fun of it is that A.J. tells you everything straight. He's sure fifth graders are mean because they get the most homework. He works out that if they were at the edge of nowhere, they'd be right next to the edge of somewhere. It's like sharing a seat with the cheekiest kid on the bus.

There's a LOT of giggling about nudists, too. Nobody actually takes their clothes off. It's all talk, and most of it is the boys being daft.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Dangling a toy out of the window of a moving bus is played as pure fun, and it's A.J.'s big idea. He also mentions his dad once let him try a sip of beer (he hated it). If you've got a copier, the window bit might be worth a quick chat. Most kids will just enjoy watching it all go wrong.

If your reader thinks being very late for school would be the best day ever, this one should go down a treat.

What to read next

Mr. Klutz is the bald principal who sends the bus off on its mission, and he gets his own book in Mr. Klutz Is Nuts. He flies off a skateboard into the bushes outside school, then starts making deals to get the whole school working.