"This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall" is the first book in the Bruno and Boots series, which sometimes shows during the story. The characters, extravagant Bruno, and the more mild-mannered Boots, aren't as well developed and the plot doesn't flow quite as smoothly as later classics, such as "The War with Mr. Wizzle" or "The Zucchini Warriors".

That said, this is still a book well worth reading - it contains the trademark Korman wit, and ridiculous, yet believable circumstances for the main characters, as they blunder through problem after problem, eventually stumbling to the rather satisfying, if somewhat predictable, conclusion. Given that Korman wrote this as a 7th grade English project, I have no major complaints, and the rest of the series is worth reading enough to make up for any weaknesses in the first book.

I would particularlyreccommend this book for 7-8th graders, including male reluctant readers. ( )

This was a reread of a childhood favourite. And I didn't laugh out loud or spit my coke, or snort or anything. I remember falling over laughing when I read it for the six millionth time as a child.

But still, it was pretty funny. Shorter than I remember, and a little predictable, but then there were whole phrases I remembered "I'm an entomologist. My world is the insect world."

When their headmaster The Fish sends school pranksters Bruno and Boots to live in separate rooms with weirdos, the best friends are desperate to get back to their own room. Craziness ensures.

I like that this book is firmly Canadian, even through the boarding school setting, with hockey games, and ambassadors from Ottawa.
I also like the example of how pranks can cross the line into bullying and meanness. Bruno and Boots, no matter how capering, are good lads, and redeem themselves by the end.

They are a little dated, especially the references to technology, but anyone who can handle Enid Blyton should have no trouble with this.I'd give this to readers looking for school stories or comedy stories. ( )

Originally written as a junior-high English project, this debut by Gordon Korman is a guaranteed crowd pleaser for the 'tween set. It introduces us to Bruno and Boots, trixters extraordinaire, who specialize in pranks that keep their fellow students at Macdonald Hall in stitches and The Fish, their headmaster, guessing. But when they finally go too far, the boys are sent to separate dorms and faced with their greatest challenge yet - to devise a plan to reunite and to save their reputations as the most legendary team of jokesters MacDonald Hall has ever known.

THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING AT MACDONALD HALL is not great literature, but it succeeds where it counts, providing non-stop hijinks and enough practical jokes at the expense of authority figures to keep the pages turning. Most adults will find the two protagonists, Bruno and Boots, grating and two-dimensional (it is difficult to tell them apart, really), and many of the jokes bordering on cruel, but then, Korman never for a second forgets his audience. He writes for his contemporaries, and he does so gleefully and unapologetically, paving the way for the further adventures of the unsinkable Bruno and Boots. ( )

Lexile: 670
Reading Recovery: 22
DRA: 38
Fountas Pinnel Guided Reading: P