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Mutually Assured Detention
War may be hell, but prank wars are hell-arious.
Seventh-grader Jordan Bryant is desperate for a scoop for his year-end ELA project. When the vice principal gets glitter-bombed in front of the whole class—and the wrong student punished for the prank—Jordan thinks he’s found the perfect story. Instead, he finds himself swept up in the biggest thing to ever hit Murray the Great Prank War. As the pranks get evermore epic and insane, so do the punishments handed down by the draconian administration. Can Jordan and his wacky friends figure out who’s responsible for causing the school-wide mayhem without getting into trouble themselves? More Can they stop the madness before the trigger-happy vice principal cancels the dance?
Mutually Assured Detention is a raucous, laugh-out-loud tale of friendship and pandemonium by the author of The Dragon Squisher and Rivals! Frenemies Who Changed the World.
Qamar Yochanan Elizabeth Evans Paul Castro, Jr. Maxwell Glick Lianna Liew Pamela Almand Gregory Connors Ann Osmond Madeleine Hernandez Cary Hite Margaret Ying Drake Michael Crouch Fajer Al-Kaisi Feodor Chin Kathy Searle Jimmy Berry JB Chen Jamie Zubairi Bilaal Avaz Judy Lee Sanjiv Jhaveri
Seventh-grader Jordan Bryant is desperate for a scoop for his year-end ELA project. When the vice principal gets glitter-bombed in front of the whole class—and the wrong student punished for the prank—Jordan thinks he’s found the perfect story. Instead, he finds himself swept up in the biggest thing to ever hit Murray the Great Prank War. As the pranks get evermore epic and insane, so do the punishments handed down by the draconian administration. Can Jordan and his wacky friends figure out who’s responsible for causing the school-wide mayhem without getting into trouble themselves? More Can they stop the madness before the trigger-happy vice principal cancels the dance?
Mutually Assured Detention is a raucous, laugh-out-loud tale of friendship and pandemonium by the author of The Dragon Squisher and Rivals! Frenemies Who Changed the World.
Qamar Yochanan Elizabeth Evans Paul Castro, Jr. Maxwell Glick Lianna Liew Pamela Almand Gregory Connors Ann Osmond Madeleine Hernandez Cary Hite Margaret Ying Drake Michael Crouch Fajer Al-Kaisi Feodor Chin Kathy Searle Jimmy Berry JB Chen Jamie Zubairi Bilaal Avaz Judy Lee Sanjiv Jhaveri
Audio CD
Published December 6, 2022
17 people want to read
About the author
Scott McCormick
329 books117 followersScott McCormick is the author of more Scott McCormick bios than any other Scott McCormick who ever Scott McCormicked. Look it up if you don’t believe me. He also writes the Mr. Pants graphic novels and the hilarious Audible Originals The Dragon Squisher, Spies! Sneak, Snoops, and Saboteurs Who Shaped the World, Mutually Assured Detention, and the number-one bestseller Rivals! Frenemies Who Changed the World. But who are we kidding? The real money is in writing bios. You take that advice to the bank. Tell ‘em Scott McCormick sent you. And if they ask you which Scott McCormick, you tell ‘em the Scott-McCormick-bio-writing Scott McCormick of the North Carolina Scott McCormicks. They’ll know who you mean.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
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May 30, 2023DNF - i started this one as it was free with an audible trial thinking it looked like a fun/uniquely told middle grade story with a trans MC but then found it had at least two HP references just in chapter one which definitely affected my enjoyment. though it was challenged, there was also an instance of deadnaming. ultimately this didn’t feel like something i wanted to carry on with. it seems others have enjoyed it but unfortunately it wasn’t for me.
February 10, 2023
Jordan Bryant is a seventh grader who is trying to find a scoop of a story for his end-of-year English project. When the vice principal gets glitter bombed in front of the whole class and the wrong student is punished for it, he thinks he's found the perfect story. What Jordan doesn't realize is that he's been swept up into the middle of the Great Prank War.
But when the administration begins handing out draconian punishments with a little investigation, Jordan becomes determined to figure out who is actually responsible. And the stakes are high; the vice principal has threatened to cancel the school dance!
Listening to the full-cast recording of this story is, I think, what made this story so much fun. With each chapter set up as a separate episode of his upcoming podcast, the mystery surrounding the prank war is revealed a little bit at a time as more people fall victim to the pranks. But, as typically happens in prank wars, the pranks continue to escalate, and Jordan is swept up in the middle of it all.
Though this is the first book I have read/listened to by Scott McCormick, I will definitely be reading more. He does a wonderful job of capturing the hijinks that can be middle school. I also liked how he captured the difficulties that a trans student faces when trying to get all the members of faculty and staff to use their new name. Though not a feature of the story, those aspects round out Jordan's character in a great way.
Finally, I think my favorite line of the whole story was when Jordan calls out the school administration (not an exact quote, but pretty close): if only the administration had done the smallest amount of investigation, they could have found this information themselves. As someone who has taught middle school, I had to laugh at that, having seen other situations that, while not as crazy as this Prank War, were funny from the outside and incredibly frustrating from the inside. After listening to this book, I am looking forward to listening to the other books by McCormick that I have in my listening queue.
But when the administration begins handing out draconian punishments with a little investigation, Jordan becomes determined to figure out who is actually responsible. And the stakes are high; the vice principal has threatened to cancel the school dance!
Listening to the full-cast recording of this story is, I think, what made this story so much fun. With each chapter set up as a separate episode of his upcoming podcast, the mystery surrounding the prank war is revealed a little bit at a time as more people fall victim to the pranks. But, as typically happens in prank wars, the pranks continue to escalate, and Jordan is swept up in the middle of it all.
Though this is the first book I have read/listened to by Scott McCormick, I will definitely be reading more. He does a wonderful job of capturing the hijinks that can be middle school. I also liked how he captured the difficulties that a trans student faces when trying to get all the members of faculty and staff to use their new name. Though not a feature of the story, those aspects round out Jordan's character in a great way.
Finally, I think my favorite line of the whole story was when Jordan calls out the school administration (not an exact quote, but pretty close): if only the administration had done the smallest amount of investigation, they could have found this information themselves. As someone who has taught middle school, I had to laugh at that, having seen other situations that, while not as crazy as this Prank War, were funny from the outside and incredibly frustrating from the inside. After listening to this book, I am looking forward to listening to the other books by McCormick that I have in my listening queue.
November 30, 2022
Funny little book in podcast form about kids at school and pranks gone wrong. Pretty short and amusing.
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May 25, 2022Pranks, crushes, moms' and dads' expectations, best friends, quirky teachers, on and on: all of these are captured in this audio story presented as a "podcast" with different scenes played out by the characters found in middle school. I giggled often and laughed outright a few times as I followed mischief and tween-ager angst that threatens to land everyone in detention. I listened to this on audio first thing on this summer day and feel younger but also grateful those years of "school daze" are long over. A fun story!
May 15, 2022
The story revolves around a middle school prank war that gets out of control and the MC's podcast to find out the truth of it all. It's a fun piece with a transmasc main character in middle school. He's deadnamed more than once, but it's addressed in the narrative as not being okay.
January 2, 2023
I almost lost interest - ALMOST!
Granted, this is a middle grade book, but I found there was a moment where the story dragged for me. But then it picked up and I can honestly say I liked the ending.
4 stars
Granted, this is a middle grade book, but I found there was a moment where the story dragged for me. But then it picked up and I can honestly say I liked the ending.
4 stars
April 25, 2022
This was very cute.
mystery and pranks what more could you ask for :)
mystery and pranks what more could you ask for :)
April 25, 2022
Love the performances :) I also enjoy MG fiction.
July 30, 2022
5* my 6 and 8 y/o loved this!!
January 1, 2024
This was a great mystery story for children.
February 10, 2024
Book 194 - Scott McCormick - Mutually Assured Detention
I love a children’s novel…I love a clever novel written as a podcast…I love an audiobook of the above…one that makes think I would so be using this if I was still teaching.
This is not one of those…
It is vacuous…flimsy…poorly targeted, audience-wise…stereotypical teachers and students in a US school.
It isn’t funny…it isn’t clever…it simply isn’t very good…
Current ‘issues’ of the day around gender identity are shoehorned in…as is any additional ‘drama’
As for the story…who is causing the pranks that is putting everyone in detention? By the end of the book…I simply didn’t care.
I love a children’s novel…I love a clever novel written as a podcast…I love an audiobook of the above…one that makes think I would so be using this if I was still teaching.
This is not one of those…
It is vacuous…flimsy…poorly targeted, audience-wise…stereotypical teachers and students in a US school.
It isn’t funny…it isn’t clever…it simply isn’t very good…
Current ‘issues’ of the day around gender identity are shoehorned in…as is any additional ‘drama’
As for the story…who is causing the pranks that is putting everyone in detention? By the end of the book…I simply didn’t care.
December 11, 2023
This book’s main character is a transgender individual. No thanks. Also, I really wish this agenda would stop being pushed on the youth.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews