Middle-School Cool

January 15, 2014
Graduates of Wayside School will fit right in at the decidedly unconventional Kaboom Academy. The Academy is located in a former mental situation, staffed in part by former patients and dedicated to making students fall "madly in love with learning!" It offers literary classics in easy-to-swallow pill form, games of dodgeball in which the balls vigorously throw themselves, loud gongs and cannon fire instead of bells, and character-building lunches sprinkled with "curiosity," "honesty" and other "spices of life." The school also has a journalism class of nine young investigative reporters--including legally blind photographer Leo and telepathic former conjoined twins Aliya and Taliya--determined to winkle out all of the Academy's secrets. Williams weighs her episodic tale down with detailed expositions of the central cast's unhappy pasts and troubled domestic situations, as well as heavy-handed axe grinding in repeated rants against the boring, pointless, time-wasting experience of going to normal school. Nevertheless, the mix of out-and-out magic with far-fetched but logical twists creates an enjoyably surreal romp. Also, the author shows a knack for wacky inventions, from those book pills to the climactic arrival of an Invisiblimp. Middle schoolers will clamor for a transfer. (Fantasy. 10-12)

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May 1, 2014

Gr 4-7-When an experimental new school opens in the town of Horsemouth, several parents are desperate enough to enroll their children in spite of the secretive-and frankly peculiar-vibe given off by the school's headmaster. Kaboom Academy does indeed prove to be highly unconventional, brimming with experimental educational practices in which the children are the guinea pigs. Wacky inventions abound, like autonomous dodgeballs, and a "multiplication table" that is literally a table-one that creates multiple copies of any object placed on top of it, including people. This school is anything but boring, as its student body, made up of misfits who have each been deemed unteachable in one way or another, soon discovers. Prompted by journalism class, the students begin to dig up the school's strange and disturbing secrets. The book's chapters often open with student newspaper articles investigating various odd or mysterious happenings. Among other things, the kids find that their school building used to be a psychiatric facility, and that several of its patients remain as teachers. This amusing and lighthearted story pokes fun at traditional education, while celebrating nonconformity, individuality, and even oddity. It takes the premise that middle school is a crazy experience at baseline, and runs with it. The overall goofiness, as well as the cartoony illustrations, make it a good choice for younger middle schoolers.-Emma Burkhart, Springside School, Philadelphia, PA

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