Sideways Stories from Wayside School

American author Louis Sachar published his middle-grade humor novel Sideways Stories from Wayside School in 1978. Sachar has published over 20 books for children and young adults, and Sachar received the National Book Award and a Newbery Medal for his book Holes, published in 1998.

Sideways Stories is the first in the Wayside School series, followed by Wayside School is Falling Down (1989); Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger (1995); and Wayside School Beneath the Cloud of Doom (2020). Sachar also authored two spinoff books: Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School (1989) and More Sideways Arithmetic from Wayside School (1994). These math and puzzle books are interspersed with stories.

The Wayside School series are story sequence books (also called composite novels or short story cycles) in which each chapter contains a mini conflict and resolution. Chapters are not linked by a linear plot; instead, each chapter serves as a complete narrative. The series takes place at Wayside Elementary School. The debut novel predominantly focuses on the students of Mrs. Jewls’s 30th-story class but includes chapters for three primary teachers. The grade of the students is unspecified, but the students are likely in the first or second grade based on the level of math and spelling performed in the book.

Wayside is an unusual school because of the builder’s misreading of the blueprints. It was designed as a single-story building consisting of 30 classrooms, but instead, was built as 30 stories, each story with a single classroom. As a result, everything associated with Wayside School is a bit “sideways” or fantastical. The book is categorized as humor and contains elements of absurdism and illogical premises. Although intended for young readers, the Wayside books make use of tropes common to postmodernism. For example, the novel is an example of metafiction, in which the character Louis is cited as the author. In addition to their absurdism, novels adhering to these tropes are self-referential and sometimes break the fourth wall by directly addressing the reader. Sachar also employs magical realism, in which the story intertwines magical and realistic elements, to thematically explore Absurdity Versus Reality. Through the characters’ zany actions and unexpected circumstances, Sachar also develops the themes of Problem Solving and Learning and The Importance of Community and Social Norms.

This guide refers to the Harper imprint of the book, published in 2019 by Harper Collins.

Plot Summary

Each chapter focuses on a specific teacher or student of the classroom on the 30th story of Wayside School. Each character has a defining trait and a specific conflict they face, which is addressed in some form by the end of the chapter.

The first two chapters introduce the primary teachers: Mrs. Gorf and Mrs. Jewls. Mrs. Gorf is the original teacher of the classroom on the 30th story. She turns fearful students into apples, but when a student holds up a mirror, Mrs. Gorf accidentally turns herself into an apple. Louis, the yard teacher, inadvertently eats her.

Mrs. Jewls then takes over Mrs. Gorf’s class. She mistakes the students for monkeys and continually offers them bananas until the children convince her that they are, in fact, students. She forbids talking and starts a “discipline” list. The students preferred her thinking that they were monkeys.

In Chapters 3-6, Joe cannot count correctly, though he often arrives at the correct answer by mistake. Mrs. Jewls assures him that one day he will wake up and know how to count, and he does.

Sharie repeatedly falls asleep during class. Mrs. Jewls thinks Sharie is the best student because she either sleeps or stares out the window. One day, Sharie falls out the window. Louis catches her, but she scolds him for interrupting her dream.

Todd is the only student who does not talk out of turn or cause trouble, yet he cannot avoid having his name placed on the “discipline” list. Each day, Mrs. Jewls sends him home from school early as punishment.

Bebe is the fastest artist in the class. Calvin hands her crayons, and Bebe draws hundreds of pictures in one day. Mrs. Jewls criticizes Bebe’s art, saying that art is about quality, not quantity. Bebe throws away all her pictures, determined to spend all day on drawing just a cat.

In Chapters 7-10, Mrs. Jewls sends Calvin to deliver a note to Miss Zarves, the teacher on the building’s 19th floor. Calvin turns to Louis for help, who assures him that there is no Miss Zarves because the 19th floor does not exist. Calvin returns to inform Mrs. Jewls, but she simply thanks him for delivering the important note.

Myron is the class president. His job is to turn the lights on and off at the beginning and end of each day. One day, he is late to turn on the lights because he helped save Dana’s dog. Mrs. Jewls scolds him for leaving the classroom in the dark and makes Stephen the new class president.

Maurecia brings ice cream to class every day, until she no longer likes any of the flavors. Mrs. Jewls invents new flavors of ice cream, each modeled after a student in the class. However, the students cannot taste the flavors named after them. Maurecia likes the Todd flavor so much that she tries to bite him.

Paul sits in the back of the class, so all he can see are Leslie’s pigtails. He fights the urge to pull them and cannot resist. He feels guilty for hurting Leslie, but the pigtails assure him it is okay. Three strikes mean trouble, so he decides he can pull her hair twice per day. When Leslie cries out for the third time, no one believes Paul’s innocence.

In Chapters 11-15, Dana suffers from itchy mosquito bites. Mrs. Jewls maintains that the only cure is arithmetic. Dana finally curbs the itch by counting the bites on her body.

Jason gets Joy in trouble for chewing gum. When Joy places her gum on Jason’s chair, Jason becomes stuck. The students try various whacky methods to release him but fail. When Joy kisses Jason on the nose, he becomes unstuck.

Rondi has no front teeth, but everyone in the class tells her that her front teeth are cute. They also compliment her boots and hat, which she is not wearing. Frustrated, Rondi bites Louis when he asks to see her cute smile.

Sammy, a new student, arrives on a rainy day wearing many raincoats. The students think he smells, so Mrs. Jewls instructs Sammy to remove layer after layer of raincoats. Once they are removed, the students discover that Sammy is actually a dead rat. Sammy is the third rat Mrs. Jewls has caught trying to sneak into her classroom.

At recess, Deedee wants to obtain a green ball, which is the best of the balls. Her second choice is a red ball, but only yellow balls remain. The students on the lower floors arrive at recess before her, so Deedee can never get a green ball. Mrs. Jewls will not let Deedee leave for recess early, so Deedee devises a plan. She disguises herself as a dead rat and is removed from the class. Deedee is the first at recess and gets the green ball. When Deedee asks Louis if he likes her, he assures her that he’s always wanted a dead rat as a friend.

In Chapters 16-21, DJ smiles all the time. His smile is contagious, and everyone wants to know the reason he smiles. The students take turns guessing why DJ is so happy, and he finally tells them that there is no reason; he only needs a reason to be sad.

John can only read upside down, not right-side up. Mrs. Jewls helps him to remedy this by surrounding him with pillows. John stands on his head and can read the blackboard. Once John falls and hits his head, he is miraculously able to read right-side up. Mrs. Jewls offers him a Tootsie Roll pop, which is on her desk, as a reward. John looks under the desk and can’t find it.

Leslie has no use for her toes. Louis offers to buy her toes from her at the rate of five cents per toe. If she cuts them off, he can give them to the lunch teacher. Leslie agrees, but he tries to haggle her down to three cents for the little toes. When she declines, he offers to buy her pigtails. The thought of cutting off her hair horrifies Leslie.

Miss Zarves teaches on the 19th story. Because the building has no 19th floor, however, Miss Zarves does not exist.

Kathy is mean and dislikes everyone, so everyone dislikes Kathy as well. Kathy believes her reasons for not liking anyone else are correct because no one likes her.

Ron wishes to play kickball, but other students do not allow him to join in because he lacks skills. Louis is a kickball all-star and offers to play on Ron’s two-person team. When they lose, Ron holds Louis accountable for their loss.

In Chapters 22-25, the three Erics are confused with one another because they share the same first name. Each receives a nickname, and the other students no longer mix them up. Eric Bacon is skinny, but the kids call him “Fatso.” Eric Fry is a muscular athlete, but the kids call him “Butterfingers.” Eric Ovens is the nicest student, but the kids call him “Crabapple.”

Various school staff asks Allison to give them her possessions—a tangerine, a book, and a tennis ball. Mrs. Jewls asks Allison to help her spell “chair” and admits the secret that students are smarter than teachers.

Mrs. Jewls tasks Dameon with asking Louis if he’d like to watch a movie with them. However, Louis has questions about the movie, and asks one each time Dameon returns from the 30th story. After running up and down the building’s staircases several times, Dameon misses the movie.

Jenny mistakenly arrives at school on a Saturday to find the classroom empty. She thinks the class will return, so she works on her spelling until she is told to go home.

In Chapters 26-29, Terrence is good at sports but bad at sharing. He repeatedly bothers the other students by kicking the ball over the playground fence when they play games. Louis solves this problem by kicking Terrence over the fence.

Joy steals Dameon’s lunch and blames the theft on various peers. Everyone applauds Joy for solving the mystery, and Joy even offers Dameon her old bologna sandwich lunch. Dameon does not enjoy it, but he forgets all about the lunch once he’s done eating. However, the incident haunts Joy, and the delicious food she eats after tastes like porridge.

Nancy is a boy and dislikes having a “girl’s” name, even though everyone else likes his name. He makes a new friend from another class and finds out that her name is Mac. Nancy and Mac decide to trade names, but the other students decide to trade names too. After an hour of confusion, the other students opt to keep their original names.

Stephen has green hair and dresses as a goblin for the Friday before Halloween. The other students aren’t wearing costumes and make fun of him. The ghost of Mrs. Gorf appears and confirms that Friday counts as Halloween. Pleased to be right, Stephen hugs Mrs. Gorf, which causes the ghost to vanish. The students celebrate Stephen’s victory but insist he change out of his costume.

The book concludes with Chapter 30, which centers on Louis, the playground teacher and the author of the book. During a blizzard, he entertains the students with stories of students from another school. The Wayside students find the stories to be bizarre. Louis tells them that when he relays tales of the Wayside students, others find the kids to be just as “strange and silly.” The students balk, but Louis recounts the events of this book back to them, proving his point. Mrs. Jewls thanks him for his stories, and the children boo.