The first time I heard of this book, it was during a commercial James Patterson made to promote its release (...has it ever weirded you out a little bit that he is always doing commercials to promote his new books? Just him sitting there talking dramatically about his books? No? It's just me? Okay.) I was really intrigued with reading it one day, and filed it away in the back of my mind. When Books a Million emailed me over July 4th weekend announcing that all four of Patterson's Middle School books and his first I Funny book were on a crazy sale, I caved and got them. In hindsight...they make libraries for things like these. But I figured if they're good, they'd be nice to have in the long term, right?
Middle School: The Worst Years of my Life is the first book in Patterson's Middle School series. Main character Rafe Khatchadorian starts sixth grade with less than great expectations. His mom is engaged to a man who sits on the couch all day drinking soda and watching TV while collecting unemployment checks, his little sister is going through an annoying phase known as the fourth grade, and he's having to start sixth grade in a new school with new teachers, new girls, new bullies, and new rules. It's actually the rules that become the main source of conflict when Rafe decides with his best friend to break each of the rules in the entire student handbook over the course of the year...while also dodging the bully that just won't leave him alone and trying to woo the pretty girl he has a crush on.
The plot of this book certainly isn't super original. Middle school is a real low point in most kids' lives, because of all the new rules and bullies and teachers and cute girls. Adolescent boys want to challenge those bullies, appear cool in front of the cute girls, be tough and rebellious towards the teachers, and break the rules when they can. And that's pretty much this book. But even though most of it is pretty predictable, there are several really surprising twists along the way. Obviously I won't spoil them, but the phrase "whaaaaat?" escaped me more than once. (At least twice, maybe three times.) It's also pretty funny. Not necessarily laugh out loud funny, but the cute kind of funny. The style the book is written isn't super original either; the pre-teen diary-style book featuring lots of drawings and doodles throughout is pretty popular right now. Diary of a Wimpy Kid was probably what started the little genre off, and series like Dork Diaries have also really taken off. I know I still have four more books left to go in this series, but I honestly much prefer the Wimpy Kid books to Patterson's. (I definitely laugh out loud to Wimpy Kid....I'm kind of lame, I know.)
I also feel like it needs to be said that a book encouraging awkward and unhappy boys trying to find their way in a new school by just systematically breaking all the rules in the code of conduct - while disrupting classes and publicly disrespecting teachers - might not be the best idea. And maybe I'm just biased because I have had my class disrupted and have been publicly disrespected by middle school boys...but hey. I'm just throwing it out there.
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