Rotten School 05 – Shake, Rattle, and Hurl!

R. L. Stine's Shake, Rattle, and Hurl is a very silly boarding-school comedy for 7 year olds about a talent contest and a boy who'll try anything to win it.

What happens

Bernie Bridges lives in Rotten House at the Rotten School. He's in fourth grade and he's a natural-born leader, or so he's heard people say (he'd never say it himself, of course).

This year the winner gets two tickets to see The Plopps, Bernie's favourite band, and a trip backstage to meet them. The trouble is Wes Updood from Nyce House. Wes plays the saxophone so well that the whole Dining Hall gets up and dances. And Bernie's friends have one small problem. They don't have any talent.

So the auditions start in Bernie's bedroom. His bulldog Gassy has an act that involves counting, and you can probably guess how. Then Bernie stuffs two pillows down his jeans to do an impression of his teacher, Mrs Heinie, just as she appears in the doorway. His friends try a Three Stooges routine and knock each other flat.

Then Bernie hears the most amazing rock guitar drifting up the stairs. It's Chipmunk, the shyest boy in the dorm, playing on a pile of dirty washing in his cupboard. Can he play in front of an audience, though? The title gives you a pretty big clue!

It's gross in the way that makes children laugh out loud. There's burping, a lunch that doesn't stay down and a girl called Jennifer Ecch who covers Bernie's hand in wet kisses. Bernie tells you everything himself and he's never once in the wrong (in his own head, anyway). Half the fun is spotting how far his version is from what's really going on.

This is the fifth Rotten School book, but Bernie introduces himself and his friends all over again, so a new reader won't feel lost.

If your reader loves a schemer whose plans go wrong in the most disgusting ways possible, Bernie is their boy.

What to read next

If it's Mrs Heinie they want more of, The Heinie Prize comes next in the series. Sherman Oaks has already bought a display case for her award before anyone's even won it, and Bernie can't let that stand.