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Homerooms and Hall Passes #2
Homerooms and Hall Passes: Heroes Level Up
Dungeons & Dragons meets Jumanji in the second book in the laugh-out-loud adventure series Homerooms and Hall Passes!
Months after saving suburbia from destruction, our heroes are back to their old lives of dungeon delving and magical quests. All except the wizard Albiorix, who has given up adventuring and uses his time trying (unsuccessfully) to create his own board game.
When the party finds their old friend June Westray’s smartphone for sale in a Bríandalörian bazaar, however, they fear the Realm of Suburbia is under threat.
Thus, the five young adventurers must travel back into Homerooms & Hall Passes, a role-playing game where they assume the characters of average American kids. This time they’re at Level 9 and will face a whole new set of challenges: their freshman year of high school!
There are different cliques, different rules, and higher stakes. And if that wasn’t stressful enough, the heroes must track down an evil spellbook, defeat a sinister foe, and figure out how to get back home . . . .
“You can’t help falling in love with this hilarious upside-down take on Dungeons & Dragons. I read; I cheered; I laughed out loud.”—Gordon Korman on Homerooms and Hall Passes
Months after saving suburbia from destruction, our heroes are back to their old lives of dungeon delving and magical quests. All except the wizard Albiorix, who has given up adventuring and uses his time trying (unsuccessfully) to create his own board game.
When the party finds their old friend June Westray’s smartphone for sale in a Bríandalörian bazaar, however, they fear the Realm of Suburbia is under threat.
Thus, the five young adventurers must travel back into Homerooms & Hall Passes, a role-playing game where they assume the characters of average American kids. This time they’re at Level 9 and will face a whole new set of challenges: their freshman year of high school!
There are different cliques, different rules, and higher stakes. And if that wasn’t stressful enough, the heroes must track down an evil spellbook, defeat a sinister foe, and figure out how to get back home . . . .
“You can’t help falling in love with this hilarious upside-down take on Dungeons & Dragons. I read; I cheered; I laughed out loud.”—Gordon Korman on Homerooms and Hall Passes
416 pages, Hardcover
Published October 19, 2021
11 people are currently reading
1081 people want to read
About the author
Tom O'Donnell
10 books91 followersTom O'Donnell has written for The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, and several TV shows. Tom lives with his wife and kids in Brooklyn, NY.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
April 8, 2021
This sequel to Homerooms and Hall Passes tries really hard to fix some of the problems with the first book, tries to fix a couple of things that could have been left alone, and still feels like it takes place in the 90s, smartphones notwithstanding. It was a lot of fun, but it didn't need the added romantic subplot and I didn't love Sorrowshade's direction as a character. On the other hand, I did enjoy having that bard from his last party Devis kept mentioning show up, and the identity of the big bad was good.
So I'm mixed on this. I just wish I knew where Thromdurr being good at math came from...
So I'm mixed on this. I just wish I knew where Thromdurr being good at math came from...
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October 28, 2020An excellent follow-up to the first book in the series. And it's got something for nerds of all ages! I've already bought an extra copy for the school library and I wish my 2nd graders were high enough to read it (not yet... maybe in April)....
May 11, 2022
What it’s about: The Briandalorians head back to Suburbia after finding some Suburbian goods being sold in Briandalor - including the phone of June Westry, their boon companion. And it didn't help that it seemed like June was exchanging texts with a boy - nope, Albiorix didn't mind that at all, not one bit...
The adventurers purposely trigger the ancient curse in order to pursue the bard Tristane, who managed to completely beat the entire party single handedly, and who has amazing hair. Tristane stole Albiorix's Hall Masters Handbooks and has learned all about Suburbia, enabling him to embed himself at Pine Grove High School, the setting of Advanced Homerooms and Hall Passes. There, Tristane is able to steal from his many admirers; then he somehow brings his loot back to Briandalor to sell as unique treasures.
After getting themselves once again situated in their Suburbian personas, the group prepares to take Tristane down. Unfortunately, nothing is as it seems, and the band of heroes finds themselves facing new dangers - as well as the unexpected return of a malevolent force they thought they'd destroyed.
Having made it through middle school, the Briandalorians are not prepared for the advanced difficulties of high school. Beset on all sides, it seems inevitable that the band will Blow It and be destroyed, leaving Suburbia to whither under the attacks of villains of many types.
What I thought: This was an interesting sequel to a fun first book. I liked how O'Donnell spun the story, carrying it forward in an engaging way. He managed to maintain the humorous tone of the first volume, perhaps even exceeding it (I literally laughed out loud with this one).
But the author also has dialed up the darkness. The stakes in the first book were rather nebulous; in this one, they become very apparent as being life-or-death, with the heroes suffering some severe set-backs, defeats, and even deaths.
There were a few things I didn't love about this installment, and they were pretty minor. One is that Thromdurr the barbarian, after having spent 90% of the first book struggling with math, has not only overcome his difficulties, but seems to have bounded ahead in his ability to understand math. (Like I said, a minor thing; but it did gnaw at me.)
The other thing I didn't love: In theory, our main characters are 9th graders. They end up fighting against characters that are at least juniors. Now, this may not seem very major; but imagine that 9th graders (high school kids) were beating up on 7th graders (middle school kids). Those 2 years make a big difference, particularly in this age range. So that just felt lopsided to me. Maybe it's because I've been teaching middle school for 20+ years and have recently started working with high school kids for the first time in a while, so I'm seeing the tremendous difference between the two groups. Again, kind of a minor thing in an action-adventure story. And if the two groups were in Briandalor, the disparity probably wouldn't even enter my mind.
Overall, O'Donnell once again does a nice job of picking out some of the absurdities of the public education experience and mining them to create an interesting "non-adventure game" for the main characters to muddle through.
Why I chose those shelves: The heroes are absolutely bullied by multiple villains in multiple ways, both physically and psychologically; there's magic and mayhem aplenty; the story is set in a high school and deals with many of the aspects of being in high school; there are definitely humorous elements strung throughout the story; the book is perfectly appropriate for middle school readers; the setting is a modern suburb, with some characters able to use magic, and with some supernatural creatures;
Why I rated it like I did: This was another fun installment of the series. It got the biggest laugh from me of the two volumes so far. It was also more complex and a little darker than the first, and that wasn't a bad thing - it increased the stakes in a clear and important way. I look forward to book-talking this title with students!
The adventurers purposely trigger the ancient curse in order to pursue the bard Tristane, who managed to completely beat the entire party single handedly, and who has amazing hair. Tristane stole Albiorix's Hall Masters Handbooks and has learned all about Suburbia, enabling him to embed himself at Pine Grove High School, the setting of Advanced Homerooms and Hall Passes. There, Tristane is able to steal from his many admirers; then he somehow brings his loot back to Briandalor to sell as unique treasures.
After getting themselves once again situated in their Suburbian personas, the group prepares to take Tristane down. Unfortunately, nothing is as it seems, and the band of heroes finds themselves facing new dangers - as well as the unexpected return of a malevolent force they thought they'd destroyed.
Having made it through middle school, the Briandalorians are not prepared for the advanced difficulties of high school. Beset on all sides, it seems inevitable that the band will Blow It and be destroyed, leaving Suburbia to whither under the attacks of villains of many types.
What I thought: This was an interesting sequel to a fun first book. I liked how O'Donnell spun the story, carrying it forward in an engaging way. He managed to maintain the humorous tone of the first volume, perhaps even exceeding it (I literally laughed out loud with this one).
But the author also has dialed up the darkness. The stakes in the first book were rather nebulous; in this one, they become very apparent as being life-or-death, with the heroes suffering some severe set-backs, defeats, and even deaths.
There were a few things I didn't love about this installment, and they were pretty minor. One is that Thromdurr the barbarian, after having spent 90% of the first book struggling with math, has not only overcome his difficulties, but seems to have bounded ahead in his ability to understand math. (Like I said, a minor thing; but it did gnaw at me.)
The other thing I didn't love: In theory, our main characters are 9th graders. They end up fighting against characters that are at least juniors. Now, this may not seem very major; but imagine that 9th graders (high school kids) were beating up on 7th graders (middle school kids). Those 2 years make a big difference, particularly in this age range. So that just felt lopsided to me. Maybe it's because I've been teaching middle school for 20+ years and have recently started working with high school kids for the first time in a while, so I'm seeing the tremendous difference between the two groups. Again, kind of a minor thing in an action-adventure story. And if the two groups were in Briandalor, the disparity probably wouldn't even enter my mind.
Overall, O'Donnell once again does a nice job of picking out some of the absurdities of the public education experience and mining them to create an interesting "non-adventure game" for the main characters to muddle through.
Why I chose those shelves: The heroes are absolutely bullied by multiple villains in multiple ways, both physically and psychologically; there's magic and mayhem aplenty; the story is set in a high school and deals with many of the aspects of being in high school; there are definitely humorous elements strung throughout the story; the book is perfectly appropriate for middle school readers; the setting is a modern suburb, with some characters able to use magic, and with some supernatural creatures;
Why I rated it like I did: This was another fun installment of the series. It got the biggest laugh from me of the two volumes so far. It was also more complex and a little darker than the first, and that wasn't a bad thing - it increased the stakes in a clear and important way. I look forward to book-talking this title with students!
September 2, 2020
This is such a fun series! I love the characters and the story is entertaining. The plot moves along at a great pace and even if you've never played D & D, you won't be lost and will enjoy this book! I hope the series continues and I can't wait to see what the characters are up to next.
December 15, 2020
I LOVE this series. It’s an awesome capture of DND and suburbia. Hysterical portrayal of the stereotypical dnd characters thrown into the daunting world of high school. I hope there are more to come in this series!!
December 8, 2021
A fun twist on Dungeons and Dragons. A must if you've already read the first.
January 27, 2021
I love this so much. O'Donnell has a fantastic ear for humor. I read the book, and I bet I'll listen to the audiobook as well. The only flaw is that I almost wish there was more- the high school parts are more or less skipped straight through, I think to avoid rehashing the fish-out-of-water nature of the first book (I'd enjoy it again though). Vela and Devis have a little less to do, but it's all still great.
April 5, 2021
The adventurers from the magical realm of Briandalor -- a paladin, a thief, an elf, a berserker, and a wizard -- are back playing Homerooms and Hall Passes but this time they find themselves in high school. It turns out they aren't the only Briandalorians at Pine Hill High School and they'll have to work hard to defeat the interlopers and figure out how to return to their own realm. This is a laugh-out-loud twist on role-playing games.
November 5, 2020
A solid entry in the franchise. Twists, turns, double-crosses, triple-crosses! The upside-down D&D game now has to navigate....High School, and many of their Middle School actions will combe back to haunt them. All while dealing with a moping Barbarian, a secretly happy gloom elf, and "the bard from my last party" come home to trouble.
October 13, 2021
This series continues to be a hoot. I do play D&D so I get most of the wit, but I think most people would get most of it too, whether they've played role playing games or not. I do think the stakes didn't seem quite as high in this book, but I giggled many times. And I will say, even though they were technically a villain, bards are the best!
November 1, 2020
Oh Tom O’Donnell how I adore you!
This was a great follow up to the delightful first book Homerooms and Hall Passes. Chock full of witty dialogue, playful commentary on D&D classes and rules, and a reversal of the real world and fantasy world.
I can only hope to see more in this series!
This was a great follow up to the delightful first book Homerooms and Hall Passes. Chock full of witty dialogue, playful commentary on D&D classes and rules, and a reversal of the real world and fantasy world.
I can only hope to see more in this series!
March 26, 2024
Enjoyed it even more than the first time. "Ensorcelled" appeared three times. Highly recommend. Hope for another story from Tom O'Donnell with these characters.
January 5, 2022
and the game goes to High School.
November 14, 2021
Cute series. My inner nerd loved it!
March 17, 2023
Can I say something? This book is SO. PERFECT.
Everything is so well balanced, the characters, amazing.
So well written.
Everything is so well balanced, the characters, amazing.
So well written.
May 12, 2023
Really excellent. I hope there are more books in this series, but I'm not getting my hopes up.
August 8, 2023
Heroes Level Up
Overall Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ :star_half:(4.5/5) or 9.14/10 overall
Characters - 9
Atmosphere - 9
Writing - 10
Plot - 9
Intrigue - 9
Logic - 9
Enjoyment - 9
Overall Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ :star_half:(4.5/5) or 9.14/10 overall
Characters - 9
Atmosphere - 9
Writing - 10
Plot - 9
Intrigue - 9
Logic - 9
Enjoyment - 9
June 28, 2024
Fun read ... I was looking for something light to help me get back into reading ... Those Scottish history books destroyed my will to read.
September 13, 2024
Ugh. Boring, ridiculous, and contradicts the (adorable) first book. Only thing I liked was Sorrowshade baking Christmas cookies.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews