Finished Merits of Mischief: The Bad Apple by T.R. Burns. I received a copy of this from the publisher at BEA.
Seamus is a good kid, the kind who always has his homework done early and is unfailingly polite. Unfortunately, the one time he decides to act out (to stop a fight in the cafeteria), a substitute teacher ends up dead. (Seamus throws an apple, which hits her in the head—total freak accident.) Next thing you know, he’s been sent to the Kilter Academy, which is a reform school for troublemakers.
Except it turns out that what it ACTUALLY is is a school to make “bad” students even worse! Demerits are good, gold stars are bad and the student who can cause the most trouble wins.
This is an absolute delight of a novel. I’m hoping it’ll be the start of a series (it looks like it will be) but that depends on how well this book sells. I heard about this book because I had breakfast with the author at Bloggercon over BEA. I’m so glad I did! This book is really cute and I think middlegrade readers will love it.
Seamus is a sweet kid and it’s fun watching him adapt to this crazy world. (His roommate Lemon is wonderful, too, as his Seamus’ crush Elinor.)
It’s also great to see the pranks that these kids pull. (In order to advance to the next grade, students have to successfully pull a prank on their teacher using a skill from their class. For example, you’d have to steal something from the math teacher, subtracting his possessions.)
This is just a completely fun read and I can’t wait to see what Seamus and his friends do next.
Recommended.
This one sounds really fun!