My Weird School 3 – Mrs. Roopy Is Loopy!

Dan Gutman's Mrs. Roopy Is Loopy is a silly school story for 8 year olds about a new librarian who keeps turning up as somebody else entirely.

What happens

This is book three of My Weird School, and A.J.'s school has a brand-new library, and there's a giant tree growing right up the middle of it with a tree house at the top. Brilliant. Except the new librarian, Mrs. Roopy, is off sick on the very first day.

Instead, George Washington climbs down the ladder. He's got a white wig, a sword and a set of wind-up chattering teeth. He insists it's 1790 and computers haven't been invented yet.

Next time it's Johnny Appleseed, barefoot with a pot on his head, who takes them outside to plant an apple tree. Then it's Neil Armstrong, coming down the ladder very slowly in a spacesuit.

Andrea, who knows everything, says it's obviously Mrs. Roopy in costume. A.J. isn't so sure. And anyway, does it matter? (He's quite enjoying library time, not that he'd ever admit it.)

His big position is that all books are boring. Every week Miss Daisy asks if he still thinks so. Every week he says yes!

So the gang go full detective. Michael's dad is a policeman, so the plan is to get Mrs. Roopy's fingerprints off a juice box. It's much harder than it sounds, especially once Nursery Rhyme Week starts and Little Bo Peep comes skipping into the classroom.

A.J.'s voice is the fun of it. He takes everything literally ("fiction is what you get when you rub two things together") and he's never, ever wrong, even when he is.

There's a quiet point under all the silliness, about finding the right book for a child who swears they hate reading. You'll probably see it coming before your reader does.

It's very American (second grade, recess, a dollar bill with George Washington on it), and A.J. is as rude about Andrea as ever. Short chapters too, which suits a child who likes their laughs quick.

What to read next

If they want more of the same class, Ms. Hannah Is Bananas has an art teacher in a dress made of pot holders, and A.J. is quite sure that art is stupid.