Rotten School 13 – Got Cake?

R. L. Stine's Got Cake is a Rotten School romp for 7 year olds starring a boy who's convinced nobody on campus is more popular than him, and sets out to prove it.

What happens

The school yearbook is turning a hundred. To celebrate, it's bringing back an old tradition, a whole page for the Most Popular Rotten Egg. Bernie Bridges thinks the winner is obvious. It's him, of course.

Nobody else seems so sure. Sherman Oaks, the richest boy in school, is busy handing the yearbook editor expensive presents. April-May June, the girl Bernie insists is his girlfriend (she really isn't), tells him everyone is more popular than he is.

So Bernie comes up with a plan. He'll have a birthday party bigger than anything the school has ever seen, with everyone there and lots of photos to prove it. There's just one catch. It won't look good if he throws it for himself.

This is book thirteen in the series, but you don't need the others to follow it. Bernie tells the story himself and he's gloriously full of himself. He drops enormous hints to his friends about the surprise party they're "secretly" planning. They have no idea what he's on about.

Then there's Jennifer Ecch, who takes the yearbook's pictures. She's completely in love with Bernie and calls him her wubby-wubby, loudly, in front of everyone. Every time she does it, he looks like he wants the ground to swallow him up. That bit gets a big laugh!

It's slapstick from start to finish. There's a school craze for stomping on each other's feet, a teacher with a glob of chewed-up sweet stuck to his forehead and pizza down the front of just about every shirt.

One scene is worth a mention. Bernie gives out free nutty chocolate bars so his photographer can snap a happy crowd, and a boy who's allergic to nuts starts to choke on one. He's fine a moment later and the joke lands firmly on Bernie. Still, if your child has a nut allergy, you might want to know it's in there.

For readers who love a show-off narrator who never learns his lesson, this is very good fun. Can Bernie really be the most popular kid in school? He certainly thinks so.

What to read next

If they're after more of Bernie's big ideas, Night of the Creepy Things is the next book in the series, with the whole campus trying to scare each other silly for a horror video.