Bummer in the Summer!

My Weird School Special #6

by Dan Gutman, Jim Paillot (Illustrator)

With more than 23 million books sold, the My Weird School series really gets kids reading!



School’s almost out for the summer, and A.J. is dreaming about all the fun things he’s going to do on vacation.

But A.J.’s dream quickly turns into a nightmare when three familiar spirits appear to show him summers past, present, and yet to come. Will they be able to convince him to leave his bad ways behind? Or will this summer end up being a total bummer?

Bestselling author Dan Gutman brings his kid-friendly sense of humor to this special series of after-school chapter books featuring hilarious stories plus thirty-two pages of games, puzzles, and more.

This is one weird summer vacation special you won’t want to miss!

Genres: Humor, Childrens

144 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 30, 2019

About the author

The 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.

Reviews

[Del · Rating 3 out of 5]

These books are a bit of a double-edged sword - my kid is loving them, but he's also picking up some trash talk from them, and I'm the main recipient...

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had not read a Weird School book until now. In this book, AJ is very excited about the impending summer break. One night he has a series of ghosts who visit him (a la A Christmas Carol) to help him think about his behavior and how he can be a better person. The humor is silly and the vocabulary is great. I can see why this series is popular with kiddos.

[Chelsea P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bummer in the Summer by Dan Gutman, this book starts out by A.J saying he hates ghosts he has never liked ghost because there creepy and they always try to scare you. He made a list of what he was going to do this summer since it is only 3 months away. There were things like throw Frisbee,catch fireflies, hang out with friends and much more. So after he put his superman pj's on and was of to sleep. He woke up during the night and saw a light shining through the fog outside it was a flashlight and someone jumped through the window it was a boy he was wearing white underwear and no pants. His name was Billy he said "I am the Underwearwolf". He said "I have come with a warning, A.J. Billy said you have been a very bad boy very bad boy after some time Billy randomly just jumped out of the window and A.J guessed it was just a bad dream so he went back to sleep. After an hour or so he woke back up he had a clock in his room he never had a clock in his room but there was something in his room them he heard a spooky voice say A.J.....A.J.......A.J then he thought it was hallucination but he saw a ghost floating over his bed. It looked like his principal Mr. Klutz. Billy said that a ghost would come to my room so A.J asked the ghost if Billy sent him to his room the ghost said "You got that right" the ghost said come with me and he went out of the window and A.J knew he could not fly huh he said where are we going "Out the window" the ghost said. The ghost said you will not fall just hold my hand and step out of the window he stepped out and he was flying. They flew like maybe millions of miles. He went back to sleep after that adventure then he woke up and there was another voice that said A.J....A.J....A.J now there were 2 ghosts and they looked just like Mr. Mackey and Mrs. Roppy. They said they had a present for him he said what is the present and they said books. "WHAT books I hate books." Now he has to complete a bunch of assignments that include reading through out summer break. They were like the other ghost and went right back out of the window where they came from and he fell right back to sleep. Then he woke up again from another voice saying A.J...A.J...A.J now it looked like Miss Daisy, Mr. Granite and Mr. Cooper they were 3 teachers he had at Ella Mentry school. There was bad news and worse news and he wanted to hear the bad news first he had to repeat 3rd grade again Mr. Cooper told him why he had to repeat 3rd grade he said he talked in class he shouted instead of raising his hand and turning in his homework late. Now there was no more summer vacation school was all year round. Now the clock struck one and there was another weird looking ghost it was Dr. Brad his school counselor. He kept talking very weirdly. He looked like a mad scientist he wanted him to go on another journey. They went out of the window and they flew to a playground it was not his school it was Dirk schools playground it was another school in his town it was the school where the smart dorks go. They saw that the kids were being nice and there were signs that said stuff like Respect Others. A.J was surprised he has never really been nice to people so he asked if he could go to that school Dr. Brad said no it is only for nice girls and boys to go to so they went back home and he went back to sleep. The clock struck two and he woke up and now there were like 7 or 8 ghost floating over his bed there was a lot of ghost that looked like people at his school. They said they had bad news so he asked one ghost the ghost said all the ice cream is out and there is no candy either what he said no sports no more swimming everything was getting banned. One of the ghost said it happened because something about earths axis and she was saying a lot of stuff so ya. So that was his worst night ever. The clock struck three and he heard another voice it was EMILY so A.J has been really mean to her and her friends so she did a lecture about how he is an immature and insecure little boy. She was going to make his life a nightmare. The clock struck four and he almost made it until he had to wake up for school but he heard another voice say A.J...A.J....A.J he could not figure out who it was because it had a hood on but the ghost said " Come with me Arlo" and the only person that knew his real name was ANDREA YOUNG. He could not scream for his mom or dad because it was a nightmare. Andrea said I've come to show you the future he said i don't want to see the future then she said come with me and he said no but she yanked him out of his bed and they started to fly. They flew to a church and they looked inside he saw a bunch of his teachers and he saw one boy and one girl at the front it was him and Andrea getting married. He shouted NOOOOOOO but they could not hear him since it was in the future. He woke up covered in sweat the clock hit 7 o'clock he survived the night now he was off to school. He saw Andrea putting her backpack in her cubby "Good morning" she said he screamed noooooo don't touch me then he went to his friends and they said are you okay he said he felt a little sick. Andrea called him sick in the head and his friends thought he was gonna say something back but no so they thought he was in love with her now. But now he was gonna be nice from now on.

This book connects to the theme of the month funny because he had to go through all of those ghost just to find out he needed to be nice.

I rate this book a 5 stars because it was really funny and had lots of details.

I recommended this book to people that like humorous books and like lots of details.

[Stephanie Bange · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another title to add to the My Weird School series, this special edition focuses on the night before the first day of summer vacation for A.J. He is visited by his friend Billy (the Underwearwolf), who fortells the visits of three ghosts that night: the ghost of summers past, three ghosts of the present, and eight ghosts of the future.

You guessed it -- this parody of A Christmas Carol takes A.J. on what becomes a nightmare ride of his past bad behaviors and what will happen in his future if he does not change his ways. Filled with puns, silly gags, funny footnotes, and plenty of “icky/cootie” boy-girl passages, this one is just right for fans of the series. Since A.J. identifies all the ghosts in the text (his teachers and other adults he encounters daily), you do not have to have read others in the series to appreciate this one. On a side note -- kudos for mentioning reading Newbery books over the summer! B & W digital artwork by Jim Paillot adds to the humor; the teachers look the same as in other titles in the series. One error noted – p.10 describes the Underwearwolf as wearing “white underwear and no pants”; p.9 shows him with what appear to be 3-color gray polka dot boxer shorts. Appended in back are “Weird Summer Facts”, games and puzzles (with answer keys), and trivia questions.

A fun, light read to keep beginning chapter books busy this summer. An optional purchase for grades 1-3.

[Samantha Buchheit · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected this book (for the parent child book club) to be fun and summery, but it was set during the end of the school year and they never even made it to summer. It's a retelling of A Christmas Carol (like soooo many other things, and it is never subtle). What made it worse was that there was no character development/falling action/resolution. After the last ghost visits, there is only one small chapter in which Arlo does decide to be nice, but only out of fear of getting in trouble, not in hopes of being a better person. I don't think kids' books need to have perfect, heroic characters all the time, but I think we should still expect more, especially when the treatment of the girl characters has been a little off-putting in every book we've read for the club so far.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m going to start counting all the chapter books I read out loud to my kids. This one is a hard pass

[Ying Nie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Henry

I love your story’s Dan Gutman. Oh I gust said the L word. Back to what I was doing your story’s are the best I the History of the world

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

we liked it! It reminded us of the Christmas Carol. One of the characters in the book was visited by ghosts.

[Joey Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

really funny

[Ariane · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good

I liked all of the funny things that happened in the book.
I would recommend it.
All of the my weird school books are the best.

[Sarah LeGear · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a favorite. It just seemed to bluntly end.

[Randy Tramp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Takes me back to my kid years. Fun read.

[Meriem Guenoun · Rating 4 out of 5]

تع

[Cris · Rating 4 out of 5]

AJ is visited by ghosts that resemble his principal and teachers. They show him him past, present and future…it’s very reminiscent of a Christmas Carol but with a wedding at the end lol

[Barbara Hazan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has a lot of ghosts in it so get ready to see some ghosts

[Sarah P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh, I dont even know why I picked this up

[Amelia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book about ghosts and nightmares. I think AJ learned that if you don't do something good, things will haunt you FOREVER! Dun, dun, dun!!! (sorry wanted to do a sound affect. LOL!) Ps. That night I had a nightmare, and ended up sleeping on my couch. So if you get scared easily, I recommend that you shouldn't read this.

[John Jeng · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew it! AJ will marry Andrea!

[Ashlyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one wasn’t nearly as good as the others. It was a pretty strange premise and I think it could’ve been written better. However, I think this would be fun for younger kids to read.

[Chiamaka Mgbatogu · Rating 4 out of 5]

AJ gets haunted by spirits.

[Lisa D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny book!

[Jeyaseelan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Best!