Book Review: “Middle School The Worst Years Of My Life”
by Daniyal Shigri
Dec 4, 2021
The book "Middle School The Worst Years Of My Life" by James Patterson was a book I read over the summer before I started 6th grade. When first reading it, I felt goosebumps of excitement.
This book is about Rafe Khatchadorian, a kid entering middle school. The book starts with the main characters in a cop car; they leave this scene as they want to show how they got there.
Rafe starts introducing himself and his best friend Leo. They skip to a school assembly while candidates for school president give their speeches. Rafe sees Jeanne Gelatta for the first time and loves her speech and finds her beautiful.
Later, Principal Dwight gives each kid a rule book and it didn’t take long for Leo to make a drawing on the book of Rafe breaking rules and being cool. Rafe could see the drawing of him and noticed the fake him was having a better time. This drawing made him get the idea that rules are meant for breaking. By saying that he faked needing to use the bathroom so he could pull the fire alarm, his rule-breaking was just beginning. I’m going to stop summarizing the book just so you can enjoy it.
What I love about this book is how it discusses that middle school isn't a walk in the park. This book contains 281 amazing pieces of paper. I know that may be long for some kids but the book is worth it and is not hard to read as a 6th grader. The book is perfect for the middle school audience as it focuses on the main character, Rafe Khatchadorian, who is going through life trouble. Rafe has a terrible stepdad, struggles with grades, and holds a crush on Jeanne Galletta. People should read this book because it has a bunch of conflicts and many twists. This book had me at the edge of my seat and I grew emotion for the characters.
The writing isn't the only good thing; the drawing and art style is phenomenal. As a person who doodles everywhere, seeing doodles all over the book was fantastic in my eyes. If you do end up reading this book you should read the other 13 books. I haven't read them but if they're like this I already love them. This book did so well it was adapted to a movie that was made in 2016 with a rotten tomatoes score of 64% The drawings are what make this book so creative and why I recommended this book.