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My Weird School Special #4
Oh, Valentine, We've Lost Our Minds!
With more than 10 million books sold, the My Weird School series really gets kids reading!
A.J. and the gang from My Weird School star in this series of after-school, holiday-themed chapter books featuring all-new hilarious stories and thirty-two pages of games, puzzles, and more.
It's the week of Valentine's Day, and A.J.'s class is getting a foreign exchange student! His name is Pierre, and he's from France. But what happens when Pierre challenges A.J. to a duel (or at least a thumb war) over Andrea? One thing's for sure: when L-O-V-E comes to Ella Mentry, it spells the weirdest Valentine's Day story in the history of the world!
Bestselling author Dan Gutman brings his kid-friendly sense of humor to this all-new series of holiday adventures. With My Weird School checklists and trivia plus tons of Valentine-themed facts and puzzles, this is one weird Valentine special you don't want to miss!
A.J. and the gang from My Weird School star in this series of after-school, holiday-themed chapter books featuring all-new hilarious stories and thirty-two pages of games, puzzles, and more.
It's the week of Valentine's Day, and A.J.'s class is getting a foreign exchange student! His name is Pierre, and he's from France. But what happens when Pierre challenges A.J. to a duel (or at least a thumb war) over Andrea? One thing's for sure: when L-O-V-E comes to Ella Mentry, it spells the weirdest Valentine's Day story in the history of the world!
Bestselling author Dan Gutman brings his kid-friendly sense of humor to this all-new series of holiday adventures. With My Weird School checklists and trivia plus tons of Valentine-themed facts and puzzles, this is one weird Valentine special you don't want to miss!
144 pages, Paperback
First published December 23, 2014
336 people are currently reading
374 people want to read
About the author
Dan Gutman
358 books1,033 followersThe author of over 80 books in a little over a decade of writing, Dan Gutman has written on topics from computers to baseball. Beginning his freelance career as a nonfiction author dealing mostly with sports for adults and young readers, Gutman has concentrated on juvenile fiction since 1995. His most popular titles include the time-travel sports book Honus and Me and its sequels, and a clutch of baseball books, including The Green Monster from Left Field. From hopeful and very youthful presidential candidates to stunt men, nothing is off limits in Gutman's fertile imagination. As he noted on his author Web site, since writing his first novel, They Came from Centerfield, in 1994, he has been hooked on fiction. "It was fun to write, kids loved it, and I discovered how incredibly rewarding it is to take a blank page and turn it into a WORLD."
Gutman was born in New York City in 1955, but moved to Newark, New Jersey the following year and spent his youth there.
Gutman was born in New York City in 1955, but moved to Newark, New Jersey the following year and spent his youth there.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
December 17, 2022
Oh, Valentine, We’ve Lost Our Minds!
This is past of the My Weird School series, but it’s a holiday special. The children receive a French exchange student for a week. Of course the boy woo’s all the girls!
This is past of the My Weird School series, but it’s a holiday special. The children receive a French exchange student for a week. Of course the boy woo’s all the girls!
February 17, 2015
It was good.
January 20, 2015
Oh, Valentine, We've Lost Our Minds! is the perfect book to share with students near Valentine’s Day or any day. A.J. and all the other boys in class are revolted at hearing about that disgusting “L-word” being brought up yet again. You guessed it L-O-V-E love and all of the yucky sentimental feelings that go along with it; at least there is chocolate! Then the most exciting thing in the history of the universe happens, Pierre, a foreign exchange student, saunters into the room with his weird name, stinky cheeses, tales of frog and snail hors d'oeuvres, and in the process turns all the girls into panting idiots. The boys have to do something! The meanest yet funniest prank ever pulled at Elle Mentary School is about to take place and you get to read about it live and in person!
February 20, 2021
(7 years old review)
I liked the book it made me laugh when they were teaching him potty words and pretending it is English and I liked when they had A thumb war and I liked when his teacher's favorite part about Valentine's Day is getting chocolate and I liked when Arlo said he didn't like Love and his teacher named all the things he liked. It a funny book I want to read the next book.
I liked the book it made me laugh when they were teaching him potty words and pretending it is English and I liked when they had A thumb war and I liked when his teacher's favorite part about Valentine's Day is getting chocolate and I liked when Arlo said he didn't like Love and his teacher named all the things he liked. It a funny book I want to read the next book.
February 25, 2015
My 4th grader enjoyed breezing through this, and my 2nd grader was inspired to read/skim it, too. Another fun story from the Weird school gang.
March 26, 2015
it's so lovely.
February 22, 2024
Summary:
It’s Valentine’s week and the class gets a foreign exchange student from France. All the boys are repulsed by the idea of “love” and look down on the foreign exchange student named Pierre, meanwhile all the girls adore him. The MC, AJ, also picks on Pierre and wants to prove to himself that he is better than Pierre; they lie to him and teach him all the awful things to say in English to make the girls hate him. AJ and Pierre have a thumb war and Pierre wins. He still wins the girls’ attention, but on Valentine’s day, he’s spotted inviting a different girl to an ice cream shop and the girl he’s been seeing prior calls him a “two-timer”. Pierre doesn’t get it because he says he believes all girls are special. He doesn’t get off the hook for that.
Likes:
Easy to read—the Author, Dan Gutman, wrote on his website that he wants all his books to be easy to read; he’s definitely achieved that; I can easily skim the pages and get an idea of the story.
Art—the art is very reminiscent of TV shows I grew up watching in the 2000’s.
Activities, jokes, facts in the back of the book—I thought that was engaging and a nice touch for readers (not a lot of books these days include extra pages like this).
Dislike:
Tone—the narrator is AJ - an immature elementary student who thinks quite highly of himself, and apparently hates the “L” word (“love”). He has an attitude of that one kid in class that isn’t afraid to say rude things out loud.
Character development—there really wasn’t much development here. Pierre’s character could have been used to teach the MC and other characters more in depth about French culture or his thoughts on “love”. Instead, almost all the other characters look down on him.
Stereotyping—While the book tried to introduce everyone (including readers) of French culture, it didn’t go into depth; it was very shallow and only scratched the surface of “baguette” and “smelly cheese” (I have nothing against cheese).
Humor—it wasn’t for me. I know I am not an elementary school student anymore, but I grew up enjoying puns, dad jokes, and slapstick humor! A lot of the jokes introduced here felt very outdated (I understand this book was published in 2014), and did not age well. I especially did not like that half of the student classroom were against the new kid—I think if I was in the new kid’s shoes, that would have been frightening and to make fun of him is outright bullying him, which the book never addresses. (The book never cautioned or properly guided its readers that bullying and lying is NOT okay.
Spoiler: None of the bullying and lying felt intentional since the MC never learned his lesson, and the story gets distracted by the idea that Pierre isn't a good guy either because he took another girl out for ice cream.)
Note: This is the only book I have read from Dan Gutman (that I know of)—so I am not aware of the rest of the series!
I wanted to give this book a chance and see if the MC changed in the end or learned his lesson, but nope. I can imagine that the way the story was written could become a TV show, back in the 2000’s—but it’s lacking the lessons learned to blow viewer’s minds.
It’s Valentine’s week and the class gets a foreign exchange student from France. All the boys are repulsed by the idea of “love” and look down on the foreign exchange student named Pierre, meanwhile all the girls adore him. The MC, AJ, also picks on Pierre and wants to prove to himself that he is better than Pierre; they lie to him and teach him all the awful things to say in English to make the girls hate him. AJ and Pierre have a thumb war and Pierre wins. He still wins the girls’ attention, but on Valentine’s day, he’s spotted inviting a different girl to an ice cream shop and the girl he’s been seeing prior calls him a “two-timer”. Pierre doesn’t get it because he says he believes all girls are special. He doesn’t get off the hook for that.
Likes:
Easy to read—the Author, Dan Gutman, wrote on his website that he wants all his books to be easy to read; he’s definitely achieved that; I can easily skim the pages and get an idea of the story.
Art—the art is very reminiscent of TV shows I grew up watching in the 2000’s.
Activities, jokes, facts in the back of the book—I thought that was engaging and a nice touch for readers (not a lot of books these days include extra pages like this).
Dislike:
Tone—the narrator is AJ - an immature elementary student who thinks quite highly of himself, and apparently hates the “L” word (“love”). He has an attitude of that one kid in class that isn’t afraid to say rude things out loud.
Character development—there really wasn’t much development here. Pierre’s character could have been used to teach the MC and other characters more in depth about French culture or his thoughts on “love”. Instead, almost all the other characters look down on him.
Stereotyping—While the book tried to introduce everyone (including readers) of French culture, it didn’t go into depth; it was very shallow and only scratched the surface of “baguette” and “smelly cheese” (I have nothing against cheese).
Humor—it wasn’t for me. I know I am not an elementary school student anymore, but I grew up enjoying puns, dad jokes, and slapstick humor! A lot of the jokes introduced here felt very outdated (I understand this book was published in 2014), and did not age well. I especially did not like that half of the student classroom were against the new kid—I think if I was in the new kid’s shoes, that would have been frightening and to make fun of him is outright bullying him, which the book never addresses. (The book never cautioned or properly guided its readers that bullying and lying is NOT okay.
Spoiler: None of the bullying and lying felt intentional since the MC never learned his lesson, and the story gets distracted by the idea that Pierre isn't a good guy either because he took another girl out for ice cream.)
Note: This is the only book I have read from Dan Gutman (that I know of)—so I am not aware of the rest of the series!
I wanted to give this book a chance and see if the MC changed in the end or learned his lesson, but nope. I can imagine that the way the story was written could become a TV show, back in the 2000’s—but it’s lacking the lessons learned to blow viewer’s minds.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 14, 2017
Summary: Valentine's Day is supposed to be a day that is full of love and lots of romance. How can you enjoy the day, when someone is trying to steal your lifelong crush?? A.J. is a regular in the My Weird School Special series. Although, he doesn't like to admit it, he is in LOVE with the most popular girl in school, Andrea Young. It's the day before Valentine's Day when Ella Mentry gets a new student all the way from France. His name is Pierre, or as A.J. calls him, Pee Air. All of the girls at Ella Mentry swoon at the first sight of Pierre. When A.J. gets word of Pierre trying to go out with Andrea, he becomes angry. The boys challenge each other to a thumb war to determine who gets to be with Andrea. Who will win this intense battle, the class clown, A.J., or the dreamy French boy, Pierre?
Questions:
1. After reading the book, predict what will happen next Valentine's Day at Ella Mentry. Do you believe that A.J. and Pierre will have different Valentines?
2. Formulate a different ending for this story. One that is told from a different characters perspective instead of A.J.'s. What will be the same? What will be different?
3. A.J. and Pierre have a conflict over a girl. Thumb wrestling probably isn't the best solution to their problem. Develop various solutions that the boys could have used instead of thumb wrestling.
4.The end of the book lists facts about Valentines Day. Research your own and chose one or two fun facts that you would add to the back of the book.
5. Imagine you're a foreign exchange student attending a new school. Discuss how you would feel. What do you think would be different in another country? Would the students act the same?
Citation:
Guzman, D. (2014). Oh, Valentine, We've Lost Our Minds!. New York, NY. HarperCollins
Questions:
1. After reading the book, predict what will happen next Valentine's Day at Ella Mentry. Do you believe that A.J. and Pierre will have different Valentines?
2. Formulate a different ending for this story. One that is told from a different characters perspective instead of A.J.'s. What will be the same? What will be different?
3. A.J. and Pierre have a conflict over a girl. Thumb wrestling probably isn't the best solution to their problem. Develop various solutions that the boys could have used instead of thumb wrestling.
4.The end of the book lists facts about Valentines Day. Research your own and chose one or two fun facts that you would add to the back of the book.
5. Imagine you're a foreign exchange student attending a new school. Discuss how you would feel. What do you think would be different in another country? Would the students act the same?
Citation:
Guzman, D. (2014). Oh, Valentine, We've Lost Our Minds!. New York, NY. HarperCollins
March 22, 2018
This story has a Valentine's Day theme, of course, and includes an exchange student (with an extremely sultry adult voice) from France who charms the girls and mystifies the boys. It's a fun, fast story and I enjoyed listening to Andy Paris narrate it on audiobook.
It's been several years since I read one of these books with our girls. We had a lot of fun reading many of the stories in the numerous series of school-themed books for beginning readers created by Dan Gutman and Jim Paillot including My Weird School, My Weird School Daze, and My Weirder School. They are fun, light reads, but after awhile we all tired of the formulaic nature of these books.
Nevertheless, I discovered this book on our library's online OverDrive website and decided to listen to the familiar tale for a bit of comic relief. It gave me a wonderful respite from my crying jag during the last hour of listening to Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. Even though I've read many of these stories before with our girls, it was a fast, funny, and available audiobook that I knew would lighten my mood.
It's been several years since I read one of these books with our girls. We had a lot of fun reading many of the stories in the numerous series of school-themed books for beginning readers created by Dan Gutman and Jim Paillot including My Weird School, My Weird School Daze, and My Weirder School. They are fun, light reads, but after awhile we all tired of the formulaic nature of these books.
Nevertheless, I discovered this book on our library's online OverDrive website and decided to listen to the familiar tale for a bit of comic relief. It gave me a wonderful respite from my crying jag during the last hour of listening to Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. Even though I've read many of these stories before with our girls, it was a fast, funny, and available audiobook that I knew would lighten my mood.
February 4, 2019
Made a mistake thinking this could be a Valentine’s Day read-aloud for my second graders. Even with the normal teacher edits (be quiet instead of “shut up”, don’t like instead of “hate”), there are still themes in this book I wouldn’t deem appropriate for 2nd grade. Kissing, being mean to a foreign exchange student without apologizing, and some of the jokes are a few things keeping this from being a read-aloud or going into my classroom library.
With that being said, I think this book would be great for upper elementary!
With that being said, I think this book would be great for upper elementary!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
April 23, 2022Read this to my third graders. They really like this series. It’s a little crude for my taste-fart jokes and vomit jokes but…kids like it. Most of the weird school are third grade reading level, Lexile around 600, and F&P Level O. I was trying to get them into this series so they would read more of them on their own and it worked! This one does mention French kissing and girlfriend/boyfriend situations are a big part of the plot.
February 19, 2023
As a fourth grade teacher, I see students grab this series often. I ordered the Valentine’s Day book to read with my six year old son. This book led to so much genuine laughter. We’ve already started our next book!
August 8, 2024
I read these books with my kids when they were younger and we thought they were hilarious! I read this book this past year with my grade 3 students - and I felt it was outdated and the jokes weren't as funny.
February 17, 2017
Cute book for young chapter book readers. Funny and good message about differences.
August 23, 2017
its going to be a good book.
March 21, 2018
L-O-V-E with "Pee Air" from France.
May 24, 2018
I like the part that AJ get confused but the part with pee air is annoying .
May 27, 2019
My 7 year old son told me I needed to read this. I am being generous with the 3 stars. My son would give it 5 stars. I have read children's books and liked them. This one did not really interest me.
September 3, 2019
It was so Funny!
February 18, 2020
Great for kids!
This book is great for kids of any age. My daughters loved it! I definitely think this will give children a series they can enjoy reading.
This book is great for kids of any age. My daughters loved it! I definitely think this will give children a series they can enjoy reading.
March 27, 2020
This is My favorite book of word school
Is very funny and has lots of Different kinds of Parts that are different from all the other books.
Is very funny and has lots of Different kinds of Parts that are different from all the other books.
May 15, 2020
This was pretty good. Pierre added a little oomph to the Weird School gang.
February 11, 2021
Fun book to read aloud to your classroom, children or grandchildren. They will especially like hearing about the dreaded "L" word.
February 20, 2021
Charlotte Mason would classify this as "twaddle," and I would agree, but I have to admit that we giggled our way through this one. Even my prim and proper mother thought that it was funny.
February 28, 2021
It is a good book
November 4, 2021
Fun kid’s story with cleverness.
February 24, 2023
My kids are absolutely loving this series! (8.6.5)
December 27, 2023
Really good book has lots crazy things going on 😊
February 4, 2024
I liked this book more than I expected to. So, wow, which is upside down for Mom.
February 22, 2024
My students loved this book! They were laughing out loud. Great read for Valentine’s Day!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews