Old School

Gr 3-7–Korman’s latest realistic fiction set in a middle school poses a fish-out-of-water scenario. Twelve-year-old Dexter has lived in his grandma’s retirement community for the past six years, enjoying homeschooling and friendships with the elderly. But when he’s forced to go to public school for the first time, Dexter must learn to be a kid; how to dress, talk slang, and deal with bullies. Dexter doesn’t like being at school and his classmates don’t seem to care for him either, until an incident rallies the students behind him. Told by various narrators—including a wannabe student reporter, a guidance counselor, and the big man on campus—this title explores the good and bad of public education as different characters try to find their place. While Dexter’s musings are thought-provoking, some of the other characters are oversimplified. Savvy readers may question why the guidance counselor sounds less mature than the students, and how Dexter’s forced education is due to officials realizing that his grandma listed Dexter as a 60-year-old so she wouldn’t have to fill out the paperwork for homeschooling.