JUNIOR HIGH 3

Somehow this is one of Nora's best covers, even dressed in an apron. Poor Mia on the right looks decidedly bad though. They sadly never did her justice. 

This book is a mess. It's not that it doesn't hold up over time. It's simply that the entire concept is terrible. 

Nora and Jennifer write a gripe list about the school that gets out of hand and eventually leads to some of the eighth grade getting an opportunity to run the school for one day. 

Now this is obviously not the best idea in the first place, but they're completely set up for failure. 

Positions aren't chosen with any sort of logic, but by a draw. This is just stupid. Nora would have done fine as the school nurse, but Denise flips out and of course is besieged by boys faking illnesses. The cafeteria job is far too much for inexperienced children. Students may have done fine as teachers, but the faculty were clearly up to something and must have met with the 7th and 9th graders to make things extra difficult. All the student teachers have difficult classes and the 9th graders go on strike. This doesn't make sense unless it was a set up. You would think these two classes would also want a shot at this experiment, so they'd behave. 

So basically, the faculty set up the eighth grade for failure, but they didn't give them a fair shot either. A wise eighth grade would have known this day was a little bit extra. Nora was suspicious but too tired to care anymore. She was happy enough the faculty would meet with class reps to work toward positive changes.

The whole thing is just plain stupid. Jennifer was easily the best character, while everyone else was either fully annoying or simply okay.