Rotten School 10 – The Rottenest Angel

R. L. Stine's The Rottenest Angel is a very silly boarding school comedy for 7 year olds about a new roommate who's far too good to be true.

What happens

Bernie Bridges has the biggest room in Rotten House all to himself. He needs the space for plotting and scheming (his words). Then one Saturday he walks in and finds a boy unpacking a suitcase.

That's Angel Goodeboy. Blond curls, rosy cheeks, twinkly blue eyes and a habit of saying "Oh, my gosh and goodness!" Mrs Heinie, the dorm mother, has put him in with Bernie on purpose. She's hoping some of that niceness will wear off on Bernie.

Bernie isn't fooled for a second. Angel takes the bed, the drawers and the walls, which he covers in posters of baby angels with his own face. Bernie ends up on a cot under the window.

Then it gets worse. His bulldog and his parrot switch sides. His best mates Feenman and Crench are soon munching Bernie's own Nutty Nutty Bars, handed over by Angel as a gift. Even Belzer starts carrying the breakfast tray to the other bed!

Bernie tells the story himself, so you get every scheme from the inside. He's a talker, not a fighter, and he's very sure he's the king of schemes. Watching someone beat him at his own game is the whole joke. Every time he tries to show everyone what Angel's really like, a teacher walks in at exactly the wrong moment. Guess who ends up scrubbing the bathroom floors for three hours?

It's properly daft. There's a bulldog called Gassy (you can probably guess why), a parrot who squawks that Bernie bites, and a LOT of GAAAACK. Some of the humour is on the gross side, with burps, smells and something warm and sticky landing in Bernie's hand. Bernie is also sweet on a girl called April-May June, who wants nothing to do with him. It's all played for laughs.

The early chapters are short and lots of them stop on a little cliffhanger, which is great for a reader who always wants one more. It's the tenth Rotten School book, but Bernie introduces everyone as he goes, so it's fine to dive in here.

What to read next

If they'd like to meet Bernie from the start, try The Big Blueberry Barf-Off, back when Belzer's breakfast tray still goes to the right bed.