Gradually-too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic-it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. Smart, insightful, poignant-leavening brutal, middle school realities with wry humor.Ĭhainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.Įvery four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Ably assisted by a diverse cast of characters, Glad (who, like her family, is white) discovers that learning how to solve one's own problems is necessary to avoid making them again. Planning for Mom’s promised visit presents another challenge: keeping Dad from dating until then. As Glad is asked to invent more-complicated fixes, school administrators are becoming suspicious. Her only lunch-table companion remains grade-skipping “Harry Homework,” 10, who assists classmates with homework (André, the Anti-Bullying Aardvark notwithstanding) to avoid harassment. A few friends would be nice, yet popularity eludes her. Trustworthy, dependable Glad never extracts payment for her efforts. She helps one sustain belief in a fictitious Canadian boyfriend makes up excuses for another to miss band practice and assists a third in shedding the girly school apparel her grandma insists on for the T-shirts and jeans she prefers. Now, Glad regularly finds excuses for Mabel and provides desperate classmates with cover stories.
Glad discovered her problem-solving skills three years earlier, when their mom needed an excuse for forgetting Agnes at school. Their hardworking lawyer dad can’t replace what’s missing. Since their mother left their family, over a year ago, narrator Gladys, 12, and her sisters-popular Mabel, 16, and brainy Agnes, 9-have longed for her return. 10798636 1969- Erlbaum, Janice Dewey number 813.An inventive seventh grade fixer discovers the downside of solving others’ problems. Language eng Summary Twelve-year-old Glad is a problem-solver at home and school, but knowing everyone's secrets means she has few friends and trying her best may not bring her mother home Tone Label Let me fix that for you Title Let me fix that for you Statement of responsibility Janice Erlbaum Creator
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