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    The Best School Year Ever
    The Best School Year Ever
    The Best School Year Ever
    Ebook98 pages1 hour

    The Best School Year Ever

    By Barbara Robinson

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Buckle up for a wild ride involving a missing gerbil, a crazy cat, and a tattooed baby that will have readers of all ages laughing!

    This hilarious novel stars the Herdmans, the worst kids in the world, who made their first appearance in author Barbara Robinson's classic The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

    In The Best School Year Ever, Imogene, Claude, Ralph, Leroy, Ollie, and Gladys Herdman haven’t changed a bit. They still set things on fire and knock the other kids black and blue.

    One day the teachers ask all the students to think of compliments for their classmates, and Beth Bradley picks Imogene Herdman’s name. At first, Beth can’t think of anything good, but soon she begins to see Imogene in a new light.

    Maybe behind all of the outrageous pranks, there is something good about the Herdmans?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateFeb 15, 2011
    ISBN9780062089953
    Author

    Barbara Robinson

    Barbara Robinson has written several popular books for children, including My Brother Louis Measures Worms, The Best School Year Ever, The Best Halloween Ever, and the enormously popular bestselling novel The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, first published in 1972, which was made into a classic TV movie and on which this book was based. The play The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is produced annually in theaters, schools, and churches all over the world. Ms. Robinson has two daughters and three grandchildren.

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    Reviews for The Best School Year Ever

    4/5

    24 ratings12 reviews

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    • 4/5
      The worst kids in school, the Herdmans, are the famous outlaws of Woodrow Wilson Elementary School. When anything goes wrong, it is certain there is a Herman behind it. Though when a school project forces all the students to think of compliments for all of their classmates, we see that there might just be something good inside these kids after all.
    • 3/5
      Growing up, one of my favorite books was Barbara Robinson's "The Best Christmas Pagent Ever." I read it at least once a year at Christmas and even convinced by parents to record the one-hour special version from television so we could watch it every year. Now, I'm older and trying to find good books for my neice and nephew. Pondering the books I read as kid, I thought of "Best Christmas Pagent" and went looking for it at my local library to make sure it was age-appropriate for my niece. And that's when I discovered that Robinson had written a couple of sequels to her popular story. The first sequel is "The Worst School Year Ever" which is more a series of vignettes on the Herdmann family than an actual plot. The stories are all linked by the class assignment to spend all year studying your classmates and then give them a compliment or two on the last day of school. So, we get to hear about the Herdmann's trying to wash their cat at the laundromat, trying to find their way into the teacher's lounge and carrying other such hijinx as you would expect if you'd read "Best Christmas Pagent." And while I enjoyed the stories, I found that it lacked something the first was missing. I think part of it is that Robinson is working hard to make these stories as timeless as possible, along the lines of "Best Christmas Pagent" and left me wondering just what era these stories were taking place. And while most of the stories are extremely funny, the thing there's not really any redeeming qualities to the Herdmann family seen here as we got with "Last Christmas Pagent."
    • 3/5
      Not nearly as cohesive as Best Christmas Pageant Ever, this one has the same style and is quite funny but has some major logical holes/flaws. Seems like Robinson just had more stories about the Herdmanns but didn't bother to put together a real plot. It was all right.
    • 5/5
      This is a hilarious sequel to Best Christmas Pageant Ever. I love the story and I love the Herdmans.
    • 2/5
      It was about someone who moves to a new school and they have to draw a name from a hat and they have to write compliments to whatever person's name they draw.
    • 4/5
      I liked this book for the characters, they are believable and well developed. For instance the Herdman kids behave poorly in and out of school. Readers may be able to relate, or can think of peers that are the same way. With relating the characters to peers, it forces students to think about tough issues. If there is a peer that misbehaves like the Herdman kids, it will make the reader think harder about why their peer acts the way that they do. It also makes the readers think about what they could do to help the misbehaved peers, just like in the book how they have to give each student a compliment. The message of this story is to find the good in everyone.
    • 2/5
      Summary: The Herdman's are enrolled in elementary school and what a terror they are! From the first and possibly their last day of school the teachers will never rest. With the six Herdman kids a-foot no one and nothing is safe. Review: Why do I even look at that stupid reading list?
    • 3/5
      This story was about what the Herdmans did during the school year. The Herdmans are a family of six. They are outlaws who smoke and cause trouble around the school. In the beginning of the school year everyone had a project were they had to pull a name out of a hat. At the end of the year they had to say a few nice things about them. Beth (who is the main character) pulled Imogene who is one of the Herdmans. One story about the Herdmans is when one of characters has to watch her little brother while her mom is gone. She leaves her little brother outside while she shops. But one of the Herdmans takes the brother and draws on his head.(because he has no hair) When she finishes shopping she realizes that her brother is gone and asks around it anyone saw him. A boy on the street says that he gave the Herdmans 25 cents to see a tattooed baby. (You know the rest of the story...) Near the end of the year, the same character had to bring her brother to school. The brother screamed, yelled, and held his breath if he didn't have his blanket. During recess all of the kids wanted to see the little boy turn purple so they stole his blanket. Imogene told them to stop and they did. Near the end of the day no one could find the boys blanket. Imogene gave him hers and told them that is was his. On the last day of school they told the person a few nice things that they thought about them. Beth told Imogene that she was brave, patriotic , resourceful, cunning, shrewd and creative. I expected the book to be better than it was. I didn't like the book as much because there were a lot of little stories. I hoped that it would be one long story about Beth surviving school with the Herdmans.I also think that it would have been cooler if it was from the Herdman's perspective instead of Beth's. But I still enjoyed the book because there were some parts that were funny and that kept me interested. I rated this book a 3 because it wasn't great nor was it bad. I do recommend it if you need a short funny(ish) story to read.
    • 4/5
      The Herdman’s are back. School is starting again and Beth’s class is given an assignment in which they need to record complements for each class member. In addition they will choose a name and write additional complements for that individual. As luck would have it, Beth chooses Imogene Herdman. How will she complement one of the meanest children she knows? This book is hilarious. In fact, it is laugh out loud funny. The Herdman’s antics are farfetched and fun. Children from 3rd -6th grade will love this book. I know that my 4th graders did.
    • 4/5
      Though not as funny as The Best Christmas Pagent Ever, this book is still a funny sequel and very fun to read
    • 3/5
      A funny, creative, and (for me at least) very nostalgic read. The Herdmans cause a lot of trouble but I actually quite like them, particularly Imogen. I know I would much rather spend time with her than Alice Wendlekin.

      One thing I don't think I noticed reading as a kid, this book is randomly fatphobic which was not appreciated.
    • 4/5
      I do not know if this good book.........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

    Book preview

    The Best School Year Ever - Barbara Robinson

    THE HERDMANS . . .

    BACK AGAIN!

    When we studied the Old West, everybody had to do a special report on A Cowboy’s Life or Famous Indian Chiefs or Notorious Outlaw Families like the James brothers. Boomer Malone picked the James brothers, but then he couldn’t find them in the children’s encyclopedia.

    That’s all right, Boomer, Miss Kemp said. It doesn’t have to be the James brothers. Pick another outlaw family.

    So Boomer did. He picked the Herdmans.

    Of course, the Herdmans weren’t in the Old West, and they weren’t in the children’s encyclopedia either. They were right there in the Woodrow Wilson School, all six of them spread out, one to a class, because the only teacher who could put up with two of them at once would have to be a Miss King Kong. My father said he bet that was in the teachers’ contracts along with sick leave and medical benefits: only one Herdman at a time.

    Boomer’s paper was the best one, three whole pages of one crime after another. He should have gotten A plus, but Miss Kemp made him do the whole paper over.

    I’m ashamed of you, Boomer, she said, calling your own schoolmates an outlaw family.

    The Herdmans didn’t care. They knew they were outlaws. So did Miss Kemp, but I guess she had to pretend they were like everybody else.

    They weren’t, and if they had been around in the Old West, they would have burned it all down or blown it all up and we wouldn’t have to study about it.

    Plus, of course, we wouldn’t have to live with Herdmans every day, in school and out. . . .

    Chapter 1

    Unless you’re somebody like Huckle-berry Finn, the first day of school isn’t too bad. Most kids, by then, are bored with summer and itchy from mosquito bites and poison ivy and nothing to do. Your sneakers are all worn out and you can’t get new ones till school starts and your mother is sick and tired of yelling at you to pick things up and you’re sick and tired of picking the same things up.

    Plus, the first day of school is only half a day for kids.

    My little brother, Charlie, once asked my mother what the teachers do for the rest of the day.

    They get things ready—books and papers and lessons.

    That’s not what Leroy Herdman says, Charlie told her. Leroy says as soon as the kids are gone, they lock all the doors and order in pizza and beer.

    Well, they don’t, Mother said, and how would Leroy know anyway?

    He forgot something, Charlie said, and he went back to get it and he couldn’t get in.

    They saw him coming and locked the doors, Mother said. Wouldn’t you?

    Well, yes. Anyone would, because the Herdmans—Ralph, Imogene, Leroy, Claude, Ollie, and Gladys—were the worst kids in the history of the world. They weren’t honest or cheerful or industrious or cooperative or clean. They told lies and smoked cigars and set fire to things and hit little kids and cursed and stayed away from school whenever they wanted to and wouldn’t learn anything when they were there.

    They were always there, though, on the first day, so you always knew right away that this was going to be another exciting Herdman year in the Woodrow Wilson Elementary School.

    At least there was only one of them in each grade, and since they never got kept back, you always had the same one to put up with. I had Imogene, and what I did was stay out of her way, but it wasn’t easy.

    This time she grabbed me in the hall and shoved an oatmeal box in my face. Hey, she said, you want to buy a science project?

    I figured that Imogene’s idea of a science project would probably explode or catch fire or smell really bad or be alive and bite me— and, in fact, I could hear something squealing and scratching around in the oatmeal box.

    Miss Kemp already wrote this year’s assignment on the board, I said, and it isn’t a science project.

    Fine time to tell me, Imogene grunted. What is it? The assignment. She shook her oatmeal box. Is it mice?

    So I was half right—Imogene’s science project was alive, but it probably wouldn’t bite me unless it was great big mice, and I didn’t want to find out.

    No, I said, it’s about people.

    Mice would be better, Imogene said.

    Later that morning Miss Kemp explained her assignment, and I thought Imogene might be right, because the assignment sounded weird.

    For this year’s project, she said, we’re going to study each other. That’s the assignment on the blackboard, Compliments for Classmates.

    All over the room hands were going up and kids were saying Huh? and What does it mean? and How many pages? But Miss Kemp ignored all this.

    It means exactly what it says, she said. You’re to think of a special compliment for each person in this class, and please don’t groan—a lot of people did anyway— "because this is the assignment for the year. You have all year to think about it, and next June, before the last day of school, you’ll draw names from a hat and think of more compliments for just that one person."

    Somebody asked if it could be a famous person instead, and somebody else asked if it could be a dead famous person, like George Washington.

    Miss Kemp said no. This is a classroom project, so it has to be people in this class. We know all about George Washington’s good points, but . . . She looked around and picked on Boomer. "We don’t know all Boomer’s good points. More important, Boomer probably doesn’t know all his good points."

    How many compliments? Junior Jacobs wanted to know.

    Up to you, Miss Kemp said.

    Alice Wendleken raised her hand. Would beautiful hair and shiny hair count as one compliment?

    This sounded to me as if Alice planned to compliment herself, which would save someone else the trouble, but Miss Kemp said, I’m not talking about beautiful hair and nice teeth, Alice. I mean characteristics, personal qualities, something special.

    This could be hard, I thought. Take Albert Pelfrey. When you think of Albert Pelfrey, you think fat. Even Albert thinks fat. It’s hard to think anything else, so I would really have to study Albert to find some special personal quality that wasn’t just about being fat. And besides Albert there were twenty-eight other people, including Imogene Herdman.

    What’s a compliment? Imogene asked me.

    It’s something nice you tell someone, like if someone is especially helpful or especially friendly.

    Alice looked Imogene up and down. Or especially clean, she said.

    Okay. Imogene frowned. But mice would still be better.

    Mice would probably be easier for Imogene because the Herdmans always had animals around. As far as I know they weren’t mean to the animals, but the animals they weren’t mean to were mean all by themselves, like their cat, which was crazy and had to be kept on

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