Sideways Stories From Wayside School

The Sideways Stories From Wayside School series is a popular series of 3 books by Louis Sachar. Sideways Stories From Wayside School, Wayside School is Falling Down and Wayside School Gets A Little Stranger are the three novel-length books. In 1989, Sachar also released a spinoff, which involves two books of mathematics and puzzles interspersed with stories: Sideways Arithmetic From Wayside School and More Sideways Arithmetic From Wayside School. The books tell many stories of a school built as a tower 30 stories high, with one room per story, but with no 19th story. Each book contains 30 chapters, called stories, complementing the 30 stories in the school.

1 Characters
2 Stories in the book
3 Story conventions
4 In other media
5 References

Characters

Students

There have been a total of 30 students on the 30th story.

Allison – She once got stuck on the 19th story for a week but managed to escape. Allison's best friend is Rondi. She owns a pet cat named Socks. In a chapter of Wayside School is Falling Down, when Allison got to school, everybody suddenly stopped noticing her, no matter how hard she tried, and she couldn't figure out why.
Bebe Gunn (a pun on BB gun) – She is the most talented artist in the classroom. She once pretended to have a little brother named Ray (a further pun on "ray gun"), who, due to the fact that he does not exist, is on the 19th story. She owns a pet bird named Picasso.
Benjamin Nushmutt – He joins the class in Wayside School is Falling Down: chapter 2. Initially, everyone thinks his name is Mark Miller, but he is afraid to correct them because of shame over his real name. He reveals his true name to the class one day in Wayside School Is Falling Down; however, the kids think he's pulling a prank on the substitute teacher, so they still call him Mark. He eventually tells the class his real name at the end of Wayside School Is Falling Down, and the other children accept it with little fuss. He also admits he is from Hempleton, not Magadonia (A pun to Macedonia). Since his name is not really Mark Miller, a boy named Mark Miller lives on the 19th story, which does not exist. He owns a pet mouse named Handsome.
Calvin – He is Bebe's best friend. He draws very slowly, so he always works in conjunction with Bebe. He owns a pet cat named Mrs. Jewls. He also has a tattoo of a potato on his ankle.
Dameon – He is in love with Mrs. Jewls, and is D.J.'s best friend. In every story starring him, he is caught running up and down Wayside School's 30 flights of stairs and runs into an act with pencils at the end. He owns a pet ferret named Yorno.
Dana – She worries that she may have a crush on John. At one time she fears being mistaken for a boy with her bad haircut and unisex name. She owns a pet dog named Pugsy.
Deedee – She loves sports and owns a pet dog named Cat.
D.J. – (a.k.a. Deej, Dojo, Dr. Jolly, Dumb Jerk) He is happy all the time. He owns a pet dog named O.K.
The Three Erics – Three students with the same name, they are all given nicknames based for the other two Erics. They also dress alike and wear glasses.

Eric Bacon – Bacon is the thinnest of the Erics, but he is called "Fatso" because the other two Erics are fat, and so it is assumed that all Erics are fat. He is also a good break dancer, but break dancing became restricted at Wayside School, because every time he danced, he broke something. He owns a pet dog named Billy.

Eric Fry – Fry hangs out with the other two all the time. He is very athletic despite his big size, but he is called "Butterfingers" because he once dropped the ball during a game of baseball. His nickname also comes from the assumption that, since the other two Erics aren't very good at sports, all Erics are not good at sports. He is also the biggest kid in Mrs. Jewls' class. He owns a pet goat named Billy.

Eric Ovens – Ovens is the nicest of the Erics, but is called "Crabapple" because the other two Erics are constantly negative, so it is assumed that all Erics are mean. He owns a pet cat named Billy.

Jason – He is known for his large mouth, and he is secretly in love with Allison. He chews on pencils a lot. He has an older brother, Justin, who's great at everything. He owns a pet cat named Socks. He is the help monitor.
Jenny – She is always late for school and wears a motorcycle helmet. She owns a pet dog named What.
Joe – He is John's best friend. Although he can find the correct answer to arithmetic problems, he does not know how to count, until one day he wakes up to discover he is suddenly able to count. He owns a pet hamster named Mino.
John – He is Joe's best friend and the smartest person on the 30th story. He could only read upside down, but after trying to learn to stand on his head, he suddenly could read right side up (but sees everything else upside down). John owns a pet frog named Yogurt.
Joy – Joy does not receive punishment in Sideways Stories From Wayside School, but is partially punished in Wayside School is Falling Down. She is always stealing lunches. Her favorite target is Todd. She owns a pet dog, which she named after Todd. Joy has the biggest mouth in the class.
Kathy – She is the "bad girl" of the class who loves to see bad things happen. She owned a pet cat named skunk (he ran away). Kathy hates everyone except for Sammy the dead rat.
Leslie – She has long pigtails and is Paul's best friend. Paul loves pulling her pigtails. She owns a pet cat named Pajamas.
Mac (born Nancy) – He loves show and tell and telling long stories with no point, mostly about socks. He was originally very shy because his name was Nancy, but he traded names with a friend, a girl named Mac. He owns a pet dog, which he named after himself. The former Mac, now Nancy, is his girlfriend.
Maurecia – She likes ice cream, and everyone likes her. She is Joy's best friend. She owns a pet cat named Strawberry. She is the door monitor. Everyone in the class likes her except for Kathy. She hates Todd also and makes fun of him when he's not around. She secretly loves Todd. This is also known as the Maurecia paradox.
Myron – He went to the basement seeking freedom. He was class president for only one day, but he was the best one ever. He is the nicest, most normal, and bravest person on the 30th story. Myron has never been in trouble. He is the only person in the entire school who likes Ms. Mush's cooking. He owns a pet chipmunk named Cheese and leaves food out for an odd bird named Oddly (though the bird isn't his pet, as Oddly is considered "free").
Paul – Although he loves to pull Leslie's pigtails, he is her best friend. He owns a pet pig named Tails, a play on Pigtails. His father is implied to be the security guard who protects the Mona Lisa.
Ron – He is a lousy kickball player. He owns a pet cat named Dog.
Rondi – She is Allison's best friend. She had a gap in her teeth which everyone thought made her look cute, until she grew two new front teeth. She owns a pet bird named Crackers.
Sammy – This student wore an unusually high number of raincoats on a particularly stormy day and smelled horrible. Mrs. Jewls eventually discovered that he was a dead rat in disguise who had sneaked into her classroom, and promptly disposed of him. Because of his terrible smell and nasty attitude, no one other than Kathy liked him.
Sharie – She wears an enormous red and blue overcoat so that she can sleep in class, due to having a non-stop life (of which Mrs. Jewls approves). She has very long eyelashes. She and Deedee are very close friends with Louis but this may be because Louis saved her life in the first book. She owns a pet turtle named Yorpet.
Stephen – He has green hair colored by pool chlorine. He consistently chooses poor outfits for school. In the first book, he seemed to be the leader of the class. He does not own a pet, so for pet day, he brought an orange which he named Fido.
Sue – She joins the class in Sideways Arithmetic From Wayside School and is not featured in any of the novel books. She owns a dog named Fangs, who has big teeth. Although she loves staying in Wayside School, she is unable to understand the class's methods of teaching and they are unable to understand her "normal" methods of math when she tries to teach it to them, to the point of Mrs. Jewls suggesting that she go to a different school.
Terrence – He has earned a reputation as a bully who likes to kick balls over the fence. He owns a pet dog named Crazy.
Todd – He unfairly always gets in trouble and gets sent home at noon on the kindergarten bus every day. His mission is to see what the class does from noon to 2:00. He does not own a pet, so for pet day, he brought his baby brother, Ralphie.

Miss Zarves' students (Non-existent)

Virginia – She is a grown woman who has been in Miss Zarves' class without going to the bathroom for 32 years.
Nick – a teenager who appears to be in high school and looks a bit like a football player.
Ray Gunn – Bebe's little brother
Mark Miller – He is Benjamin Nushmutt's alias. Everyone in Miss Zarves' class thinks his name is Benjamin Nushmutt, mirroring the fact that everyone in Mrs. Jewls's class thinks Benjamin's name is Mark Miller.
Cow – A cow that somehow got into the 19th story. Miss Zarves doesn't like it in her classroom as it disrupts her class constantly.

Staff/Other Adults

This is a list of adults who are featured in the stories.

Mrs. Gorf – She is the original teacher on the 30th story. She was able to turn the kids into apples, but the students managed to make her accidentally turn herself into one; she was then eaten by Louis. She then appeared on the monkey bars and as a potato salad in the following books. It is rumored that her ghost lives in the basement.
Mrs. Jewls – After Mrs. Gorf was eaten, Mrs. Jewls became the teacher. She is much nicer. She has a coffee can of Tootsie Pops as a reward for her students. She has a cat named MonkeyFace, is married, and has a baby daughter named Mavis. She is allergic to strawberries but likes strawberry yogurt.
Mrs. Benjamin Franklin – Mrs. Franklin is a substitute teacher, who appeared to believe everyone's name was Benjamin thanks to a prank
Mrs. Waloosh – Pronouncing her own name as Mrs. Valoosh, she is a world famous dancer who teaches the tango in the ballroom. She has a strong accent and the students, except Myron, enjoy her class.
Mr. Gorf – Mr. Gorf is a substitute teacher. The students feared him because of his similarity to their mean teacher's name although he appeared nice. He was in fact her vengeful son, and sucked the kids' voices up a third nostril in his nose in order to avenge his mother. His real voice sound like a donkey with tonsillitis and a French accent.
Mrs. Drazil – She was Louis' teacher in school, and she returns as a substitute. She seems nice, but holds grudges and carries an infamous blue notebook of things she never forgets. She leaves Wayside School to chase one of her former students.
Miss Wendy Nogard – Miss Nogard is also a substitute. She has a third ear on the top of her head which can read minds, a power she uses to make everyone else as miserable as her until she falls in love with Louis. The reason she became miserable and evil is Xavier Dalton, a man she met and loved. He loved her also, until she showed him her third ear, then he thought she was a freak, which Wendy heard.
Louis the Yard Teacher – Based on the author who once worked as a playground supervisor, Louis is kind to all the children and has a moustache of many colors. When Mrs. Drazil forced him to shave his moustache, he became professional and went by Mr. Louis but once it grew back, he was the normal Louis again. He has a crush on Miss Nogard and didn't care when he found out about her third ear. He is generally good-natured and the one adult students will turn to for help.
Mr. Kidswatter – He is the school principal and dislikes all the children. He frequently calls people by their wrong name and works on his rubber band ball
Mrs. Day – She is the secretary. Mr. Kidswatter always refers to her as "Miss Night".
Miss Mush – She is the school cook and prepares some very unusual meals. Students are averse to her cooking, and her most popular hot lunch is "nothing," which she runs out of often.
Mr. Pepperadder – He is Miss Mush's assistant.
Miss Zarves – She is the teacher on the nonexistent 19th story. She imprisons her students by giving them 11 hours of busy work and 2 minute breaks to forget about life outside her classroom. She keeps them happy by rewarding them with A's. Feeling unappreciated, she leaves the school, but is convinced to return by the men with the attaché case. There is no Miss Zarves.
Miss Worm – She is the grouchy teacher on the 29th story and apparently is a whiz at the sideways arithmetic as taught by Mrs. Jewls.
Dr. Pickell (a.k.a. "Dr. Pickle") – receives his nickname from the green pendant he uses to hypnotize students. He becomes the school psychiatrist who helps kids and makes them do strange things.
The Men with the Attaché Case – These three men appear in each book in strange places or at strange times to keep the school in order. One man is bald, and two have black moustaches.
David – incorrectly called James by Mr. Kidswatter, is Mr. Kidswatter's chauffeur.

Other

Dr. Jane Payne (born Jane Smith) - Jason's dentist, a former student of Mrs. Drazil. She loves to pull out teeth to get more money out of their clients. She and her husband Sham Payne (possibly a pun of "champagne") married for money and Jane loves her cat and dog more than her husband.
Xavier Dalton - A shy young man who likes dogs and books by Charles Dickens. He and Miss Nogard fall in love and he proposes to her, but dumps her not long afterwards because he has discovered her secret third ear. He overcomes his shyness afterwards and notoriously breaks the heart of all the women he meets, unaware that the only woman he ever loved was Miss Nogard.
Mavis Jewls - Mrs. Jewls' baby daughter, who Mrs. Jewls brings to visit her class at the end of Wayside School Gets A Little Stranger. When Miss Nogard hears Mavis' thoughts, the malice in her heart disappears.
Cows - The cattle that invade Wayside School at the end of Wayside School is Falling Down as a result of Mrs. Jewls' cowbell. They can only go up stairs, not down, and Louis is forced to get rid of them in the 243 days that passed between the second and third books.

Stories in the book

Mrs. Gorf: This story introduces the characters from Wayside School. They have a mean teacher named Mrs. Gorf, who, if they do something even remotely wrong or disruptive, turns them into apples. She is forced to turn them back into humans, but when they cause mischief again, she tries again, but Jenny holds up a mirror, which makes the effect turn on Mrs. Gorf. Now an apple, she is eaten by Louis the yard teacher. Ms. Gorf is the mother of Mr. Gorf. Mr. Gorf is talked about later in the series.
Mrs. Jewls: Mrs. Jewls becomes the new teacher after Mrs. Gorf. When she first sees the children, she pictures them as monkeys until the students convince them that they're not monkeys.
Joe: Joe is stuck inside at recess because he can't count in the correct order, even though he always ends up at the correct number. Mrs. Jewls explains after recess that Joe will one day wake up and be able to count correctly, and that if it weren't for school, it could take as much as 70 years before that happens. One day, Joe wakes up and realizes he is indeed able to count correctly. It is revealed that he has 55,006 hairs on his head, all curly.
Sharie: Sharie, who has a big overcoat, sleeps throughout class and ends up falling out of the school. Louis, the yard teacher, saves her at the last moment.
Todd: Todd always got in trouble because he's always picked on by Mrs. Jewls when he does a very small thing wrong. In this sense, Mrs. Jewls could be considered "mean". In the end, despite being harassed by Joy and saving the class from robbers, he gets sent home on the kindergarten bus. (It is revealed in this chapter that Mrs. Jewls operates on a three strikes system; anyone who violates rules three times, as denoted by their name written on the board, a checkmark, and their name circled, is sent home on the kindergarten bus. In the first book, she writes the kids' names on the board; in subsequent books, she makes the kids do so themselves.)
Bebe: Bebe draws the fastest out of everyone in the class. (It is revealed that she can produce a picture of a cat in under 45 seconds, a dog in less than 30 seconds, and a flower in less than 8 seconds.) In one art class, with the assistance of Calvin, she makes 370+ works of art in one hour (a new personal record), but Mrs. Jewls tells her that the quality of art is more important than the quantity (in fact if a single picture produced by a single person over the course of a lifetime is better than each of Bebe's pictures, the person with only one picture has produced more art than Bebe). Bebe subsequently goes home to begin a picture of a cat; she indicates that she probably will have barely begun by the next day.
Calvin: Calvin is sent by Mrs. Jewels to deliver a nonexistent note to the nonexistent Miss Zarves.
Myron: Myron becomes class president.
Maurecia: After Maurecia has tried all the ice cream flavours, she no longer likes ice cream, so Mrs. Jewls makes ice cream for everyone, with one of each ice cream flavours named after the children themselves.
Paul: Paul is unable to resist the temptation to pull Leslie's pigtails. He pulls one of her pigtails, earning him his name on the board, and then, after a brief struggle (including a hallucination of the other pigtail talking), the other pigtail, thus earning him a checkmark. He figures that he can pull Leslie's pigtails twice a day with impunity, until Leslie yells out in pain again. Paul's name is then circled and he is sent home early; it is suggested that Paul did not actually pull Leslie's pigtails the third time, and that Leslie's yell was unprovoked.
Dana: Dana is suffering from an insane number of mosquito bites. Mrs. Jewls turns the mosquito bites into numbers so that they don't itch anymore.
Jason: After Jason gets Joy in trouble for chewing gum, Joy puts her chewing gum on Jason's chair and Jason is stuck to the chair. After many unsuccessful attempts to get Jason unstuck from his chair, Joy kisses him on the nose, causing him to fall out of his chair. Joy was to be sent home early (without being allowed the usual third chance) for getting Jason stuck to his chair, but because she got him unstuck, her punishment was rescinded.
Rondi: Rondi is confused when other people compliment her about the non-existent things she has (particularly her missing two front teeth). When Louis compliments her on her two missing front teeth, she becomes fed up and bites him. It is said that a bite with missing teeth is even more painful than one with the teeth still in place.
Sammy: A new kid named Sammy comes to Wayside School, but something about him doesn't seem right, due to his smell and many raincoats. His name is placed on the board, checked, and circled, in the usual manner, because he not only refuses to remove his raincoats, but also insults Mrs. Jewls. (In an unusual extension of Mrs. Jewls' violation notation system, a triangle is added around his checked and circled name for a fourth violation.) After removing all of Sammy's raincoats, it's discovered that Sammy's actually a dead rat. Because Mrs. Jewls hates dead rats, he is put in the trash.
Deedee: Deedee just can't seem to get a high-bouncing green ball (or even a red ball, which doesn't bounce as high, although high bounces aren't always desirable) at recess because she's on the highest floor and gets downstairs after students from other classes. She disguises herself as a dead rat (knowing Mrs. Jewls' dislike of them) to get down to the playground and be able to get a green ball. (Todd is in on the plan, and is consequently sent home on the kindergarten bus when Mrs. Jewls finds out.)
D.J.: D.J. is happy, but he won't tell why. His explanation is that no reason is required to be happy.
John: John can't stand on his head, which he needs to do in order to read the blackboard. He sees everything as upside-down. When he attempts to stand on his head, he falls over, evidently flipping his brain over, thus allowing him to see things right-side up.
Leslie: Leslie can't figure out what to do with her toes since she thinks they're useless. She tries to sell them to Louis for 5¢ each (a total of 50¢), but then he lowers the offer price on her three smallest toes (on each foot) to 3¢ each (a total of 38¢). When Leslie won't sell the small toes at that price, Louis offers her 10¢ total for the two big ones; she refuses to sell her toes unless as a complete set, thus losing the deal.
Miss Zarves: There is no Miss Zarves, or 19th story. Sorry.
Kathy: Kathy hates everyone, especially the reader (and she doesn't even know the reader!), and she hates everybody all for a specific excuse (with the exception of Sammy, who, as it was revealed six chapters previously was a dead rat). It is indicated that she actually creates the excuses by her own actions; she is hit in the face by a ball because she closes her eyes and allows it to hit her, and she dislikes Alison's cookies because one that Kathy left in her own desk for three weeks became stale and old.
Ron: Ron wants to play kickball, but nobody wants to play with him because he's really bad at it. Louis teams up with him against the whole class; the two-man team is dealt two crushing defeats on two consecutive days. When Louis chides Ron for his poor kicking, Ron punches him (harder than he could kick!).
The Three Erics: Each one is given an inappropriate, stereotyped, and just plain wrong nickname. Eric Bacon the skinniest child in the class is nicknamed "Fatso", Eric Fry, the best athlete in the class, is nicknamed "Butterfingers", and Eric Ovens, the nicest student in the class, is nicknamed "Crabapple".
Allison: Allison has two personalities; a kind-hearted and logical one, and an aggressive and superior one.
Dameon: Because Mrs. Jewls wants Louis to join the class to watch a movie, Dameon has to repeatedly run up and down the stairs when Louis asks questions about the movie, which is about turtles. As a result, he misses the movie; ultimately Louis declines to watch the movie because turtles are slow.
Jenny: Jenny arrives at school, but she is inexplicably alone... except for three strange and mysterious men. It is revealed at the end of the chapter that she came to school on a Saturday.
Terrence: Terrence wants to play ball but doesn't know how to play any ball game, so he always kicks the ball over the fence, following it up with an insult when the other kids complain. Ultimately, there are no balls left; in the end, Louis kicks Terrence over the fence.
Joy: Joy forgets her lunch, so she steals Dameon's, eats it, and lies about it. In the process, she gets four other students into trouble. In the end, Joy's mother brings her lunch to school; Joy lets Dameon have her lunch. Due to the guilt she feels, any of the food items she took (which included a turkey sandwich, a piece of chocolate cake, and an apple, plus an extra Tootsie Roll pop she snuck from Mrs. Jewls' coffee can after being given one as a reward for finding the missing lunch and sharing her own) tastes like Miss Mush's cooking.
Nancy: Nancy (who is a boy) trades names with his girlfriend Mac (from the 23rd floor, who is a girl), but when the rest of the class hears about this they want to trade names as well. They do so, but due to the confusion created, nobody knows their new name. Ultimately, everyone in the class agrees to just use their original names. Only the three Erics are unsure of what their original names were.
Stephen: Stephen is the only one dressed up for the Halloween party, which does not happen on Halloween, since Halloween falls on a Sunday that year.
Louis: Louis tells a story to Mrs. Jewel's class when recess is canceled due to a blizzard (despite it being the middle of June.) about a bunch of normal kids in other schools which the children at Wayside consider weird.

Story conventions

In Sideways Arithmetic From Wayside School, it is revealed the characters add, subtract, and multiply words. The children at Wayside School have no concept of adding numbers until Mrs. Jewls teaches the kids 4+7=11, in numbers, not words.

If a student does something wrong once, Mrs. Jewls will write that student's name under the word DISCIPLINE. If a student does something wrong a second time, Mrs. Jewls will put a check next to that student's name. If a student does something wrong a third time, Mrs. Jewls will circle his/her name and send him/her home at noon on the kindergarten bus (which is very odd, as most students would seem to enjoy this). Despite only needing three strikes, Mrs. Jewls resorts to also adding a triangle when Sammy was disruptive. Despite being a good student, Todd is sent home every day on the kindergarten bus as a result of him always unfairly getting in trouble each day. Paul is also sent home on the kindergarten bus, but only once after pulling Leslie's pigtails during class. Another time, when it looks like Joy was going to be sent home early, Todd thinks he is going to have company, but Joy ends up making up for her crime. Mrs. Jewls even sends herself home early for temporarily turning evil.

Goozack was another word for door in the book Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger. After the principal ran into his office door and spilled coffee over his clothes, he said that the word "door" was a bad word. Anyone who said "door" would get in trouble. So he introduced the word "goozack" to replace the word door. Todd was the first student to break the new rule, only because he was late for school at the time and didn't hear the announcement. Later, when Mrs. Drazil said "door" and the students pointed out that she was to call it "goozack," she immediately said "Mr. Kidswatter is a 'goozack'" in retaliation.

Way-High-Up-Ball is a fictional game invented by The 3 Erics. To play you need a rubber ball and a tall building. It is played in the 27th chapter (titled Way-High-Up Ball) of Wayside School Gets A Little Stranger. One player throws a ball, and whichever level story it hits is how many points are earned by the thrower. Whoever catches it receives the same amount of points. (The thrower could thus earn as many as 60 points on one throw if they also catch the ball, or if they break a window, which counts for double points). A glopper is a ball that goes straight up and back down, never touching the wall (It is never stated whether a glopper counts for points for the height it reached, or for no points at all). For the game's last-ever appearance, Louis threw the ball, and it hit somewhere between the 18th and 20th stories and never came down since there is no 19th story.

In all 3 stories in the Wayside School series, Chapter 19 differs strongly from other chapters. In the first story, that chapter is non-existent, in the second story, the 19th chapter takes up 3 chapters (all numbered 19) and based on Miss Zarves' classroom, a non-existent location (the last of these is followed by a chapter numbered 20, 21, and 22, all at once, about Mr. Kidswatter being called a "mugworm griblick" by one of the Erics; it is suggested that Eric Bacon did so, as he is the only Eric who writes left-handed, and the insult was written on the back of a haircut appointment card by a left-handed person). In the third story, Chapter 19 is also based on the non-existent location.

In all 3 stories, Chapter 17 has the theme of things being done backwards. The first story is about John reading upside-down, the second story includes a chapter in which the paragraphs are read in reverse order, and the third story has a title which is paradoxical to its plot until the final sentences.

The last sentence of each book is "everybody _ooed." In the first book it says "everybody booed." (due to Louis telling them a bad story about a regular school) The second booked ends in "everybody mooed," after Louis asks the cows in the building to leave. The third book ends in "everybody ooohed," after Louis kisses Miss Nogard and it doesn't say if they got married.

In other media

In 2005 Nelvana, the Canadian-based animation company, produced an hour-long adaptation of the Wayside books. Its theme song was sung by Skye Sweetnam. A series titled Wayside based on the book and the TV special has premiered on Nickelodeon and Teletoon. Paramount Pictures released Season 1 onto DVD in Mid-August 2008. In 2009, The Riturmin Company has announced that they will be producing an independent film adaption of the books. As of January, the working title has been called The Chronicles of Wayside School.

References

Sachar, Louis. Sideways Stories from Wayside School. New York: Avon Books, Inc., 1978.