By Dan Gutman
The first tiny chapter book for the child who announces, loudly and often, that school is boring.
A.J. hates school. He says so on the first page and he means it. Then his second-grade teacher, Miss Daisy, admits she can't read, can't write, can't add, and can't subtract, so the children have to teach her everything, which is somehow the most fun anyone has had at school ever. Meanwhile the principal, Mr. Klutz, who has no hair, promises that if the class reads enough books he'll do something completely ridiculous, like climb the flagpole or kiss a pig. It's short, it's silly, and it goes down like a snack.
This is about as easy as a real chapter book gets. The chapters are tiny, a cartoon breaks up nearly every page, and the whole book runs on one joke a child can't resist, which is grown-ups at school behaving like clowns while the children are the sensible ones. A.J.'s voice is cheeky and a little sarcastic, forever calling things dumb and boring, and that is exactly why the child who insists reading is boring will read it. There are more than twenty of these, so if the first one lands you've handed them a series they can chew through for a year.