Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger (1995)

Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger is a 1995 children's short story cycle novel written by an American author, Louis Sachar, and is the third book in his Wayside School series. In the book, while the teacher on the 30th story of Wayside School, Mrs. Jewls, goes on maternity leave, her students must deal with multiple problematic substitute teachers.

Plot

1. Explanation

Louis finally removes every cow that had crowded the school in the previous book. After 243 days, the students and faculty all return to the school. Todd is the one who is the most excited about returning to Wayside School out of everyone else, as he was sent to the most horrible school he had ever been to: the reader's.

2. A Message from the Principal

The principal of Wayside, Mr. Kidswatter, gives a seemingly kind and professional speech on the PA system. However, he forgets to turn the PA off upon finishing, and loudly expresses irritation about having to return from his extended vacation to Jamaica.

3. Poetry

The students are assigned to write poems about a specific color. Allison decides to write a poem about the color purple, but cannot think of a word that rhymes with "purple". Likewise, Rondi decides to write a poem about the color blue, but is overwhelmed by the amount of words that rhyme with "blue". When the poems are turned in, the students have written very strange poems about the colors they chose, while Rondi never got around to writing anything.

4. Doctor Pickle

The chapter introduces Dr. Pickell, who is also known as "Dr. Pickle", though his name is not the reason (it is pronounced with emphasis on the second syllable). Dr. Pickell is a psychiatrist who uses a pickle-like stone to hypnotize people and use aversion therapy to break bad habits. As a prank, he also adds an additional stipulation to their treatment. For example, when he helps a woman quit smoking by making her think her cigarettes feel and taste like worms, he also makes her slap her husband's face when he says the word "potato." He is ultimately disbarred from practicing psychiatry, so he becomes a counselor at Wayside School.

5. A Story with a Disappointing Ending

Mrs. Jewls sends Paul to visit the new school counselor, as he cannot control his urge to pull Leslie's pigtails. The psychiatrist uses a strange pickle-like stone to hypnotize Paul, making him think Leslie's pigtails are rattlesnakes when he tries to grab them, but also adding that he will see Leslie's ears as candy when he hears the word "pencil." After Paul returns to class, Leslie breaks her pencil, and borrows one from a classmate; this is all accomplished without saying the word "pencil."

6. Pet Day

All the students bring their pets to school. The pets have unusual names, leading to confusion from Mrs. Jewls. The chapter is structured similarly to Abbott and Costello's "Who's on First?"

7. A Bad Word

After Mr. Kidswatter spills coffee on his new suit when he bumps into his closed office door (it was supposed to be open), he declares "door" a forbidden word, and requires everybody to call doors "goozacks" from that point forward. Todd, who did not hear the announcement, shows up late to school and is subsequently punished for saying "door."

8. Santa Claus

It is almost Christmas, but Kathy is the only one in the class who does not believe in Santa Claus. When Louis comes into the classroom dressed as Santa, Kathy tries to prove that Santa is not real. Mrs. Jewls eventually resolves the situation by saying that Louis is one of Santa's helpers, and the class vows to help Santa even if he is not real.

9. Something Different About Mrs. Jewls

The kids, especially Dameon, suspect that something is different about Mrs. Jewls when they notice that she is eating strange things and getting overly emotional over everything that she sees. Their suspects are confirmed when Mrs. Jewls tells the class that she is pregnant and expecting her first child. Mrs. Jewls announces that she will take maternity leave, and a man named Mr. Gorf will substitute for her.

10. Mr. Gorf

The class waits for Mr. Gorf arrive; they remain on their best behavior, as they fear that Mr. Gorf is the husband of their harsh former teacher, Mrs. Gorf. Alerted by Myron, they realize that he has not arrived, and figure that he must be hiding, so they resume work as normal. Myron, however, cracks under the pressure. Using the freedom he obtained in the last book, he jumps on various desks, then onto the teacher's desk. The other students worry about his misbehavior, but he assures Mr. Gorf is not there, only to find him in the closet.

11. Voices

At first, Mr. Gorf seems like a nice teacher with a gentle Scottish accent, but then he reveals that he is Mrs. Gorf's son. Mr. Gorf has the ability to take away one's voice by sucking it up a third nostril in his nose. He can then mimic it perfectly just by touching his nose. He eventually steals every student's voice in the room and uses them to reassure other teachers that everything is normal. After a visit from Miss Mush, the lunch teacher, Mr. Gorf uses Kathy's voice to tell her, "Have a nice day!"

12. Nose