Sixth Grade Secrets

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Sixth Grade Secrets is a novel by Louis Sachar.

Laura Sibbie, a sixth-grader, is the most popular girl in her class. She is famous for her brown waist-length hair. When she was five, she told a lie. Her father told her the story of George Washington and the cherry tree and told her that she wouldn't have to get her hair cut unless she told another lie. Laura hopes to become the first female president of the United States and takes pride in having never told a lie. However, she frequently stretches the truth without technically lying, and this habit eventually gets her into trouble.

Laura finds a trucker hat at a garage sale. The hat says "Pig City" on the front. When she and her friends decide to form a club, they name it "Pig City" after the hat. Laura is the president of the club. Each person joining the club has to provide "insurance" in the form of an embarrassing item, to ensure that they will keep the club a secret. Laura's insurance is a note she wrote confessing her love for their teacher.

One of Laura's classmates, Gabriel, has a crush on Laura and writes her a note asking about Pig City. The note is intercepted by Sheila, who is jealous of Laura, and Laura receives a note in which Gabriel demands to kiss her. Laura invites Gabriel to her house to decide whether she should kiss him or not. However, they argue and Gabriel storms out. He then forms a competing club, Monkey Town.

As the clubs fight, members of each club sneak into the classroom at the beginning of the day to write insulting messages about each other on the blackboard. They also play pranks on each other. Students in their class are punished by having to copy pages out of the dictionary by hand. Their teacher becomes frustrated with the hijinks and threatens the pranksters with one dictionary page for every day that the insults appear on the blackboard.

Sheila, who is now a member of Monkey Town, suggests that they get revenge on Laura by cutting her hair. Most of the Monkey Town club members don't like the idea, but she and a friend, Howard, corner Laura on her way home from school and cut a large chunk out of her hair. Laura has to get the rest of her hair cut off and gets a new, short, curly style.

Laura is finally tricked by another student into revealing her involvement with Pig City. She is punished with 17 dictionary pages, but all of her friends, finally done fighting with each other, help her with them.