Middle School Blues

by Lou Kassem

Book Overview

I was ready for the first day of middle school to be bad, but it's worse than I imagined. My best friend Becca missed the bus; I can't find my way around the school; I still haven't found Becca; I don't see any of my friends; and every time the bell rings, I have to worry about getting to the next class on time. The phys. ed. teacher sounds like a prison guard. Math class is even worse. I've been sent to the principal's office...and it's not even...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380703637
• ISBN13: 9780380703630
• Release Date: September 1987
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.9" x 7.5"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

like a guide book to middle school

I think 'Middle School Blues' is a great book. I'm in sixth grade and reading this book was like reading a guide book. It's an easy book to relate with. The showers in gym and the hormonal rides are all too real! Like Cindy, I do not think showering at school is a good policy for middle school. I can't understand why so many people and polls, such as misterpoll com 1335548515 html, support them. People who encourage or support these forced shower policies are helping to violate student's right of privacy. More parents need to protest the lack of modesty some schools require of us kids in PE! Mz. Kassem, through Cindy, explains middle school life better than anyone else. Cindy goes through real life issues and reading about them, seeing how she deals with them, helps me work through simalar struggles.

Great Book for upper Elementary and Middle school kids

"Middle School Blues" is a really good book. I'm finishing eighth grade (middle schools in our state are from grades 6 through 8) and this book is really good story about how middle school really is. I remember leaving elementary school and starting Middle school for the first time and wish I had read "Middle School Blues" before hand. Reading this book, kids realize middle school is a huge, huge change and its 100 percent OK to be nervous and confused for the first week or so. Kids like Cindy and I need to be reassured that we will find all our classes, we'll remember their locker combinations and that we all will eventually get over the initial shock of having to take a shower after PE. The chapter in the beginning of the book on Cindy's first day of PE was all to real to me! Like Cindy, our school requires showers. Also just like Cindy's school, our girl locker room just has one huge communal shower room. "Middle School Blues" handles this topic very well. Like Cindy and her friends, I and most of the girls in my class were quite uncomfortable with the idea of showering in public at school. Most new sixth graders in my school are like Cindy in the book, in that no one has ever seen them bathe since they were 4 or so years old! But as my Gym teacher Mrs. Mannering told our class on the first day, showering is a part of hygiene. And hygeine is part of physical education. And she says the school system policy is there is no better time to teach it than in real situations, such as at the end of school PE class. It is awkward to have to shower in front of everyone, but you do get use to it. You have to understand that almost all the girls feel the exact same as you, and you have nothing to worry about. After a few weeks, most students who did not like the idea of taking a shower after class usually convert to liking a shower and even demanding a shower after class. "Middle School Blues" really teaches us about Middle School and Middle School helps teach us about life. I think elementary schools should have all kids read this book prior to entering middle school. Amy 8th grade Pinellas Park, FL

I cannot wait to re-read this book!

I'm 22 now, but when I went into middle school, this book was my very favorite. It really helped me through the tough times...it made me feel good to think that I wasn't the only one who felt the way I did about things...obviously the author knew and communicated it through her character. I now work in a children's library and I have asked my supervisor to buy the book for the stacks. I think every 10-12 year old girl would love to read it!

The hard times of middle School

I had a very fun time reading this book. I think that Jr high or middle school is just as hard as it is for the young lady in the story. The book had a lot of simalters to my life when I entered middle school. I think that she was not to far off about her ideals of middle school. I think that it is a really funny book but it does realte to my life and that is a little wierd. I didn;t have a much troble starting middle school as she did but it was very hard to begin. I was surprised that she had more troble adjusting to middle school because I did too. I really liked reading this book and I would read it again and agian.