{My Thoughts} – The title is slightly misleading when it comes to the actual content within the pages. However, I enjoyed getting to know the characters and their personalities one on one as opposed to it all being one big story. Each chapter is written at the point of view of a different character and each character truly emerges from the individual they began as, to the individual the book ends with them being.

Maggie – She is a born leader or she believes she is suppose to be. When everything ends up upside down in their class she decides to take charge. Although, in the beginning she thinks it will be easy and fun to help her class mates evolve, she quickly learns that isn’t the case.

Samantha – She starts out being such a know it all. She seems to think that he class mates enjoy being told that they aren’t as good at doing things that are more her interest then theirs. She seems to think that any time she is in trouble her daddy can buy her way out. She also thinks it’s okay to bluntly disrespect others no matter who they are. That all changes as her character learns to mature throughout the pages.

Eric – He is such a quiet boy. He likes to stay hidden in the background. He appears to have a wild imagination though because he is always writing stories as a way to side track his mind. He has a real nack for thinking things need to be different and change but not wanting to be the one to suggest change or stand up for what he believes.

Kyle – He is such a goofball. He gets easily distracted and feels his mom doesn’t think he will amount to anything. He also has a talent at writing rhymes. He has a hard time finding his place among his peers and seems to choose messing around is being the better option as opposed to actually listening and learning.

Adam – He seems to always get into trouble but not for things that he does on purpose. He has a habit of doing things with good intention but they don’t always turn out the way that he’d like them to. Because of that he gets into a lot of trouble for the things he does, and when he tries to explain he’s usually told to be quiet. I don’t find the way he is treated to be fair, but then things have the potential to turn around.

All of these characters are in the same class. All of these characters struggle with themselves. They each want to be better, they want to make something of themselves. They want to become someone that people enjoy being around, think good things about and look forward to seeing on a daily basis. Each character bands together with the others to help make things better with suggestions, ideas, and better behavior. When you put you mind to doing something right it’s possible that anything can happen and these characters want to do things right, they just take awhile to get to the point where they think they will be able to handle the ramifications of their actions.

I think every child can relate to the way this entire class ends up feeling throughout the book. I think that this is a wonderful book for any child to read and that many will come away learning more about themselves and learning that not everything that they think matters right now is as important as the other things that are going on in their lives are may go on in the future. ( )

ages 9-11

A very cutsie book that fourth and fifth
Graders will get a kick out of! I mean what kid wouldn't think two weeks without a teacher might be pretty cool! ( )

This review is also available on my blog, Read Till Dawn.

I saw this on Edelweiss, and I knew I had to get my hands on it because I am a huge sucker for MG books about kids interacting in and around school (books like Rob Buyea's Because of Mr. Terupt, Dan Gutman's The Homework Machine, etc.), and I always jump at the opportunity to read them. With Class Dismissed I especially loved the idea of a class without a teacher, and I couldn't wait to see how the kids dealt with all the responsibilities that came with keeping a classroom running.

I'll start with the negatives, just to get them out of the way: this is one of those books where I really wish all of the kids were just a little bit older. Because the kids are ten years old, and they act like they're fifteen. And I love reading books about fifteen-year-olds, so it wasn't a massive issue, but I just had to suspend belief a few times while reading about the boy and girl who were "in love" with each other, and the girl so obsessed with the future that she thought her fifth-grade track record could ruin her chances for getting into Harvard, and the super-shallow girl with the father made of money and the fixation on reading fashion magazines. Because ten-year-olds don't fall in love with each other (heck, I'm sixteen and I've never been on a date), nothing you do in fifth grade affects your ability to get into a top-tier school (unless you, like, killed someone in cold blood or something), and I find it very hard to swallow that a girl with super-rich parents and a penthouse suite would go to public school alongside someone like, say, Kyle - the boy living in a cramped apartment with his single mother and pack of younger siblings - and there never once be mention of any reason her parents aren't sending her to some posh private school.

Believability issues aside, though, I really loved Class Dismissed. It's got a great variety of characters, and Woodrow does a great job balancing the POVs so it never begins to feel overwhelming. Each of the narrating kids has their own distinct voice that makes them easy to pick out of the crowd, and I enjoyed reading about each of their personal problems, as well as the overarching issue of trying to keep their big class secret. My favorite main character was Kyle, because he was such a fascinating mixed bag: he wanted desperately to be the mature, helpful, successful boy who did well in school and helped his single mom take care of the kids, but he just kept getting distracted and messing things up. Watching his internal struggle as he tries to decide what sort of person he really is was very compelling. The play at the end was also fabulous, and I loved reading all of the really goofy stuff the kids kept adding and subtracting from the script. When I was reading Class Dismissed, I kept grabbing people and reading particularly hilarious quotes out loud. Luckily, they didn't get annoyed - my siblings thought they were just as funny as I did!

Class Dismissed reminds me a lot of Gordon Korman's books (fans of No More Dead Dogs, take note!), or of the Terupt books (but maybe for a slightly younger audience). It was a great read, and I highly recommend it to any kid looking for a book about school, friendship, responsibility, and history.

Actually, scratch that last part. I don't think any elementary-school-aged kids should read this until they know exactly how large a part George Washington's wooden teeth really had in the Revolutionary War (spoiler: even less than you think).

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Scholastic in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Grade Level: 3rd-5th