Mr. Hynde is out of his mind!

Gr 1-3-In the funniest book (HarperCollins, 2005) yet in Dan Gutman's series, second grade king of hyperbole, A. J., complains that he hates school, dislikes reading, and particularly despises Andrea Young, a geeky brown-noser, and her crybaby sidekick, Emily. Good news arrives when their music teacher, "boring, snoring Mr. Loring," is replaced by an unlikely successor: rapper and jam master, Mr. Hynde. The "one- man funky groove machine" appears in a purple cloud of smoke with a sequined cloak, movie-star shades, baseball cap, and a penchant for break dancing. No more old school, as Mr. Hynde promises "I'm here to rock your world, so get down and get your swerve on!" Jared Goldsmith gets A. J.'s voice just right and kicks into high gear with his hilarious hip-hop/ghetto slang take on Mr. Hynde. It's non-stop laughter as he exhorts the class to get out of their seats and bust a move. During TV Turn-Off Month, or "the end of the world as we know it," Mr. Hynde teaches an unorthodox percussion lesson and writes a hip-hop Beauty and the Beast musical play to engage his charges. There's even a surprise ending, so reluctant readers and their jaded teachers will equally enjoy this delightful audiobook.-Lonna Pierce, MacArthur Elementary School, Binghamton, NY (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

My Weird School #6: Mr. Hynde Is Out of His Mind! AER Chapter One Boring, Snoring Mr. Loring My name is A.J. and I hate school. I hate reading. I hate writing. I hate arithmetic. But there's one horrible subject that I really hate more than anything else. Music. Music is so dumb! Music is the most boring subject in the history of the world. Why do we need music class in school, anyway? It's not like I'm going to grow up to be a singer. When I grow up, I'm going to be a professional dirt bike racer. In first grade last year, the music teacher, Mr. Loring, made us sing all these totally corny songs from prehistoric times, like "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore." Mr. Loring loves boats, I guess. He's weird. He's about a million hundred years old, and he has long gray hair. Mr. Loring told us that when he was a kid back in the last century, TV wasn't even invented yet. Can you imagine living in a world without TV? It must have been horrible! I would die if I didn't have TV. Mr. Loring's favorite song for us to sing was "Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?" You know the song: Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? A.J. stole the cookie from the cookie jar. Who me? Yes you. Couldn't be. Then who? Ryan stole the cookie from the cookie jar. I used to like that song, but Mr. Loring made us sing it so many times that I never wanted to eat another cookie for the rest of my life. Mr. Loring's other favorite song was "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed." That song got really old too. If any monkeys ever jumped on my bed, I would sell the bed. That's disgusting! I don't even like it when my sister jumps on my bed. Forget about monkeys. "Everybody line up!" said my teacher, Miss Daisy, after we finished pledging the allegiance. "Line up for what?" we all asked. "It's time to go to music," Miss Daisy said. "Yippee!" said Andrea Young, this really annoying girl with curly brown hair. "Boo!" said just about everybody else. Nobody except Andrea and her friend Emily wanted to go see boring, snoring Mr. Loring. Andrea loves everything about school. She even loves homework. One day Andrea asked Miss Daisy if we could have more homework! Can you imagine asking your teacher to give you more homework? Andrea is weird. My Weird School #6: Mr. Hynde Is Out of His Mind! AER . Copyright © by Dan Gutman . Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold. Excerpted from My Weird School #6 by Jim Paillot, Dan Gutman All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.