My Weird School 9 – Miss Lazar Is Bizarre!

Dan Gutman's Miss Lazar Is Bizarre is a very silly school story for 8 year olds about a caretaker who might just be a real superhero.

What happens

Book nine in the My Weird School series opens with a bathroom emergency. A.J. only asks to go to the toilet because he's feeling a bit antsy. Then he flushes, and the water just keeps on rising. Before long it's pouring out under the door!

Cue Miss Lazar, the school custodian, roaring down the corridor on a motorised scooter with a plunger in her hand. She calls herself Super Custodian. She also LOVES mess (if kids never made any, she says, she wouldn't have a job).

Then A.J. lobs Emily's glow-in-the-dark tennis ball up onto the school roof. Miss Lazar simply climbs up the brick wall to fetch it. Who needs a ladder?

So of course the boys decide she's a superhero. She's got a uniform with letters on it. She must have a secret identity. And there's a door in her basement room with a sign saying SECRET ROOM. They have to find out what's behind it, don't they?

Meanwhile Mr. Klutz, the bald principal, isn't enjoying all the cheering. Andrea is sure he's feeling left out. So the kids cook up an "emergency" to give him a turn at being the hero. What could possibly go wrong?

A.J. talks to you the whole way through like you're his mate in the playground. He promises to tell you a secret and then says he can't. He can't hear Miss Lazar say "Duty calls!" without giggling either (it sounds like doody, obviously).

There's a LOT of toilet humour in this one. If your reader thinks anything to do with the loo is the funniest thing in the world, they'll probably love it.

A.J. and Andrea bicker as much as ever and there's plenty of "dumbhead" flying about. It's all super cartoonish. (Climbing up the outside of a school is very much a cartoon thing too, which might be worth saying out loud if you've got a climber at home!)

What to read next

If they enjoy the gang playing detective on a grown-up, Mrs. Roopy Is Loopy is a great one to try. The new librarian keeps turning up as George Washington or Neil Armstrong, and the kids are determined to prove it's really her.