Class Election

Gr 4–6—Max Corrigan is back. This time he's orchestrating a class election for the New Kid. Max provides a list of doublespeak words and phrases sure to dupe adults, a microtrade strategy for winning friends and influencing people, and advice on how to get through English class without ever reading a book. With campaign strategies such as "How To Be the Most Interesting Person in School (Even if You're Duller Than a Dentist's Waiting Room)" and "How To Suck Up to Your Teachers Without Looking Like a Total Brown-Noser," how can the New Kid lose? A tangle of favors and bribes complicate the campaign against a rich-kid opponent, and, of course, Max is the last to see the problem. Max's direct address to the New Kid, while engaging, will confuse readers unfamiliar with the first book, especially since the New Kid doesn't show his face outside the boys' bathroom. If they stick with the book, middle schoolers will likely enjoy the true-to-life melodrama. Hopefully readers will see behind the snarkiness of Max's pronouncements to the deeper truth, though the sometimes bawdy, in-your-face humor may stand in the way of that insight.