There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom | Book Review
There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom, by Louis Sachar is one of my favorite books (I have many).
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It's a kid's book.
The book is actually about fifth graders, but I don't mind, I read it as a kid, and I love re-reading it as an adult.
I can't remember if I was 10 or 11 when I first read it, but I remembered that I wanted to read it because it was written by the author of the Wayside School books, and I remembered my fifth grade teacher read those books to us in class.
I finished reading this book tonight with my daughter. I haven't read it since I was a kid, but I remembered the book well.
I remembered that it was about a troublemaker that no one liked until a young new school counselor arrived.
The book itself is written in mostly very short chapters, with some chapters only being one short page.
My daughter and I cried together when Carla gets transferred to another school and has to say goodbye to Bradley. I actually bought this book to read to my daughter, and I finally got around to it. We read a few chapters each night, and finished it tonight.
I knew this would be the perfect book to engage her because it's definitely not boring, not complicated or overly imaginative where I have to explain things (like Harry Potter), and it's definitely relatable and realistic.
We talked about the book; how Bradley came from a good home but was still a troublemaker, and it was the teachers and staff that were hard on Bradley, as well as the other kids.
A lot of times when kids have behavioral problems, it is because of the home environment, but not always — just like with parents, some teachers are great with kids, some are okay, some are passable, and others should never be teachers at all.
Bradley's mom is a housewife and his dad is a policeman. They're a middle class family. They're not strung out alcoholic druggies who beat their kids or live paycheck-to-paycheck buying beer and cigarettes instead of food.
Yet, Bradley is a difficult and defiant troublemaker, even to his parents. He has toy animals that he plays with because he's an outcast and socially awkward. The teachers at his school have prejudged him already, and none of the other kids like him, but everything changes when two new people enter his life simultaneously, a new boy in school and a new school counselor.
Jeff is a nice kid. The typical popular kid that teachers, parents, and other kids like because he's generally nice, smart, and polite. He's the kid your parents want you to hang out with because he's a good influence. Since he's the new kid, he has no friends, and he also has a funny last name, Fishkin.
I definitely understand about funny last names because I remember in my school years sometimes a kid would have a last name that they were embarrassed about. (I remember one kid had a name that people used to rhyme with syphilis.)
However, Jeff is generally a nice guy, so he tries to make friends with Bradley. At the same time, Bradley also starts seeing Carla, and she gains his trust slowly. After both boys get beat up by a fifth grade girl, Melinda, Bradley starts opening up to Carla to escape from a gang of boys bullying him, because they want Bradley and Jeff to fight each other.
Bradley comes up with an idea after he gets surrounded by the boys, and is trying to protect a book that Carla gave him, which he thinks is magical. He says hello to Jeff, and since Jeff is a nice guy and always says hello back, they become friends again.
At the end, because of other parents complaining about Carla, she's transferred to another school and becomes a kindergarten teacher. She tells Bradley that she's leaving and Bradley is heartbroken, he doesn't even get to say goodbye to her.
That's the part that Ava and I started crying at, when Bradley starts telling Carla that he hates her. I actually don't even think I cried when I read this book as a kid.
I really love this book. ♡
