Rotten School 11 – Punk’d and Skunked

R. L. Stine's Punk'd and Skunked is a very silly boarding-school comedy for 7 year olds about a boy who'd do almost anything for a pile of cash.

What happens

Bernie Bridges is King of All the Fourth Graders at Rotten School (in his own head, anyway). He'll tell you himself that he's waaay too modest to say so.

Then he hears about an invention contest. The winning dorm gets a week at Preppy Prep Prep, a school so rich the kids are said to have butlers. There's prize money too, and Bernie can practically smell it.

The trouble is his friends' ideas. A balloon that runs on air. A left-handed paper cup. And Beast's Hamster on a Stick, which is every bit as gross as it sounds.

Bernie's own invention is the Nose Vac. It doesn't go well for Feenman (he spends the trip breathing through his mouth). Somehow the boys still get sent to PPP, and the reason why is one of the best jokes in the book.

Once they're there, Bernie meets his match. Feldspar Pyrite is a chubby, smiley boy who collects money for bow ties for the poor. He's also every bit as sneaky as Bernie.

Reading it is like listening to a very pleased-with-himself friend. Bernie talks straight to you, and the chapters are short, with some ending on a nudge to keep reading. The jokes come fast and they're mostly gross. Burps, barf and snot all get their turn.

It's worth saying that nobody here is a role model (which is rather the point). Bernie plays poker for money with his mates, a rich boy slips the judges hundred-dollar bills, and one round of the contest ends with a toothbrush stuck in a judge's mouth and his gums bleeding. It's all played for laughs. If your reader is likely to try the card games at home, you might like to know first.

It's very American too, with dollars, fourth grade and a dorm mother called Mrs. Heinie.

If you've got a reader who loves a cheeky narrator and a joke about barf, Bernie is their man.

What to read next

The series opener is in the library too. If they want to see Bernie running Rotten House from day one, try The Big Blueberry Barf-Off, which begins with his friend Belzer bringing him breakfast in bed.