Sideways Stories from Wayside School
Silly adventures abound in the storied walls of a school built sideways.
Sideways Stories from Wayside School was the first book to ever make me laugh out loud. Sure, I’d read stories that warranted a giggle here or a snicker there, but the over-the-top silliness of this book was like nothing my 8-year-old self had ever experienced. From the very first page, on which it is revealed that Wayside School was literally built sideways — it’s a 30-floor school with a classroom on each floor, rather than the intended one-floor school with 30 classrooms — I was enamored of the oddball people and situations that existed within its very high walls.
Louis Sachar brings Wayside School to life in a most enjoyable way by artfully blending the everyday concerns of grade school, like having a mean teacher, with the downright absurd, like that mean teacher being turned into an apple and eaten by a hungry student. Sideways Stories is filled with the types of delightfully cheeky tales that kids will hope never end. Fortunately, with two sequels, Wayside School is Falling Down and Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, the fun of Wayside School continues.
Find Sideways Stories from Wayside School at your local library.
