The Fourth Stall

The Fourth Stall is a 2011 contemporary realistic middle grade novel by Chris Rylander. With the help of his best friend and business manager Vince, sixth grader Mac runs a secret business as a “fixer” in his elementary school: He solves problems and provides services for fellow students—for a price. When Mac takes on a customer requiring protection from Staples, a legendary local criminal, he must decide the best way to deal with Staples’s harmful impact on his school while keeping his employees and himself safe. The Fourth Stall was a Texas Library Association 2012 Lone Star Reading List selection, a North Dakota Library Association 2012 Flickertale Award Winner, a Kentucky Library Association 2012 Bluegrass Award Nominee, and a 2014 Illinois Reads Selection. This guide refers to the 2012 paperback edition by HarperCollins Children’s Books. Content warning: Mac, the first-person protagonist, uses the term “pissed off” twice.

Plot Summary

Sixth-grader Christian Barrett is known to his elementary school student body as Mac. Mac is a “fixer”; for a fee, he can get needed items, provide services, and fix customers’ problems. He meets his customers in the fourth stall of the boys’ bathroom in the relatively abandoned East Wing of his school; the janitor keeps Mac’s office a secret from teachers and staff because he once utilized Mac’s services.