Ordinarily, no one would have imagined that Jack Rankin would vandalize a desk. But this was not an ordinary school year for Jack….
When he learns that he is going to spend the fifth grade in the old high school–where his father works as a janitor–he dreads the start of school. He manages to get through a month without kids catching on. But, then comes the day when a classmate loses his lunch all over the floor. John the janitor is called in to clean up, and he does the unthinkable–he turns to Jack and says, “Hi son.”
Jack performs an act of revenge and gets himself into a sticky situation. His punishment is to assist the janitor after school for three weeks. The work is tedious, not to mention humiliating. But there is one perk–janitors have access keys, keys to secret places….
ANDREW CLEMENTS (1949–2019) was a New York Times bestselling author whose beloved modern classic Frindle has sold over six million copies, won nineteen state awards (and been nominated for thirty-eight!), and been translated into over a dozen languages. Andrew began writing as a public school teacher out- side of Chicago. Called the “master of school stories” by Kirkus Reviews, Andrew wrote over eighty acclaimed books for kids, including, most recently, The Friendship War and The Losers Club, which School Library Journal called “engaging and funny . . . a laugh-out-loud first purchase” in a starred review.
View titles by Andrew Clements
Ordinarily, no one would have imagined that Jack Rankin would vandalize a desk. But this was not an ordinary school year for Jack….
When he learns that he is going to spend the fifth grade in the old high school–where his father works as a janitor–he dreads the start of school. He manages to get through a month without kids catching on. But, then comes the day when a classmate loses his lunch all over the floor. John the janitor is called in to clean up, and he does the unthinkable–he turns to Jack and says, “Hi son.”
Jack performs an act of revenge and gets himself into a sticky situation. His punishment is to assist the janitor after school for three weeks. The work is tedious, not to mention humiliating. But there is one perk–janitors have access keys, keys to secret places….
ANDREW CLEMENTS (1949–2019) was a New York Times bestselling author whose beloved modern classic Frindle has sold over six million copies, won nineteen state awards (and been nominated for thirty-eight!), and been translated into over a dozen languages. Andrew began writing as a public school teacher out- side of Chicago. Called the “master of school stories” by Kirkus Reviews, Andrew wrote over eighty acclaimed books for kids, including, most recently, The Friendship War and The Losers Club, which School Library Journal called “engaging and funny . . . a laugh-out-loud first purchase” in a starred review.
View titles by Andrew Clements
