240 p. Disney/ Hyperion, September 3, 2013. 9781423170990. (Arc obtained from publisher at ALA Annual)
Nick, Karl and Molly find themselves a bit at a loss after having solved their bully problem (Odd Squad: Bully Bait). Instead of being the heroes of the school, they find themselves a bit bored with the mundane duties of Safety Patrol, hallway crossings and warning against the dangers of Jello-meat. When a new girl arrives, she and Molly become instant bffs. This upsets and threatens Nick, after all, Molly whacked his back. And, Simone doesn't believe in Emily, the ghost/ protector/ whatever of the school.
When Nick decides to TP himself and then dump himself in a trash can, instead of flushing out Emily, he prompts the school board, led by his mother's current "perfect" boyfriend, to institute an Zero Tolerance policy on bullying. Then, Nick is accused of bullying Simone, and finds himself on the receiving end of the ZT policy and kicked off the class trip. But he just knows that Simone is not who she says she is.
I actually found myself laughing out loud quite a bit with this second installment. I also must admit to initially not liking the first. I received it at Annual in 2012 and read it pretty quickly, before leaving Anaheim, I believe. I was fairly meh about it at the time, so I put the arc aside to revisit. But I forgot about it. In January, I attended a Disney preview and Stepanie Lurie read aloud from it. Wonderfully. I totally changed my mind, reread the thing when I got back and became a fan.
This endearingly funny book will appeal to fans of the wimp and diary/ notebook type books.
There just are not enough notebook novels out there. The second one was better, but at least the students don't seem to have any reservations about these. And I did like the philosophy of "Bring the crazy". I do that every day!
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