Sideways Stories From Wayside School Summary

Louis Sachar


Louis Sachar's Sideways Stories From Wayside School is a collection of tales from an imaginary school that was incorrectly constructed.The school was supposed to have been built as a one-story building, thirty rooms long.But the contractor turned the building plan onto its side, and thus the school was constructed as a thirty-floor structure, only one room wide.There is no elevator...and there is also no nineteenth floor.That fact, like many others in the story, is never explained.

In Chapter 1, readers are introduced to Mrs. Gorf, who turns unruly students into apples.Mrs. Gorf defines "unruly" as anything students do that Mrs. Gorf does not like, such as talking when not spoken to or just plain sneezing in class.The rules in Mrs. Gorf's class are not easily defined or followed. Close to the end of this chapter, all of the students are sitting on Mrs. Gorf's desk, all of them having been turned into apples.But the children have the last laugh: they force Mrs. Gorf to return them back into children, and when Mrs. Gorf is about to curse them again, a student named Jenny holds up a mirror, and Mrs. Gorf turns herself into an apple.Shortly after this, Louis, the yard teacher, shows up.Without explaining to him what has happened, Mrs. Gorf's students watch silently while Louis eats Mrs. Gorf in apple form.

In Chapter 2, Mrs. Jewls arrives to teach Mrs. Gorf's students.The students are concerned about Mrs. Jewls because they have heard that she is very nice.Mrs. Jewls is likewise concerned because she had heard that her new students are too cute.When Mrs. Jewls first sees the students, though, she is startled.She cannot believe that she has been asked to teach a roomful of monkeys. The students argue that they are not monkeys.But Mrs. Jewls deflects this argument by claiming that monkeys would not know they were monkeys.

Joe is introduced in Chapter 3.Joe has his own unique way of counting, which is nothing like the way everyone else counts.In Chapter 4, readers meet Sharie, who has the habit of falling asleep in class.One day while she is asleep, Sharie falls out of the window.Thankfully, Louis catches Sharie before she hits the ground.

Mrs. Jewls has very strict rules in her classroom.One of those rules is that there should be no talking.In Chapter 5, Todd has his name written on the board because he has a good thought and wants to share it.When he utters a few words, Mrs. Jewls warns him about talking in class.When Todd...

(The entire section is 1004 words.)