Middle School, the Worst Years of My Life

VOYA Like other "novels in cartoons" (e.g., Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Janet Tashjian's My Life in a Book), James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts offer a likeable, middle-grade underachiever, Rafe Khatchadorian. Rafe gets into so much trouble during sixth grade, a punishment of near solitary confinement leads him to recount the highlights in prose and cartoons. It all begins on the first day of school, when Rafe, along with a special accomplice, Leo, decides to enact Operation R.A.F.E., an elaborate scheme of offenses (e.g., skipping class) and points (20,000). Even when Rafe tries to walk the straight and narrow, Leo or some situation perceived as beyond his control, lures him back to his operation. Patterson and Tebbetts have thrown in all of the usual ingredients of a book of this type: self-deprecating voice, situational humor, a crush, a bully, and a challenging, if not dysfunctional, home life. Just like others in the genre, this book is engaging, funny, and quirky. What the book does that is unique is provide a glimpse at what it might be like to try to exist in a system that does not make room for variation. Rafe is much more than a preadolescent gone wild; he is an artist and a writer looking for a place to flourish. Though the book will probably appeal most to sixth graders, readers who just want a good chuckle will enjoy it too. Reviewer: KaaVonia Hinton