Humorous Fiction Like

Sideways Stories from Wayside School

Peter describes the highs and lows of life with his younger brother Fudge.

Kidsnatched from her orphange by a BFG (Big Friendly Giant), who spends his life blowing happy dreams to children, Sophie concocts with him a plan to save the world from nine other man-gobbling cannybull giants.

Third-grader Jeremy dreads going to a new school when his family moves, so he decides to reinvent himself, hoping his new classmates will be impressed.

This collection of nine short stories presents episodes of education gone awry.

Twenty humorous stories, told or retold by Hans Christian Andersen, Lucretia P. Hale, Ruth Sawyer, Parker Fillmore, Seumas MacManus, and Howard Pyle.

Seventh grader Barton's life is terribly complicated when alien clones of him and his sister Nancy arrive on Earth and start acting in their place.

In 1860, a somewhat simple-minded fifteen-year old boy attempts to herd one thousand turkeys from Missouri to Denver, Colorado, in hopes of selling them at a profit.

When his little sister's magic cookies transform him into a flying, fire-breathing superhero, ten-year-old Horace Splattly has adventures which include confronting the monster at the school playground.

When third-grader Morgy MacDougal-MacDuff moves from California to Massachusetts with his parents, he has a lot of new things to get used to before he feels comfortable.

From her upside-down house, the eccentric Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle issues to parents her marvelous cures for such common children's diseases as Won't-Put-Away-Toys-itis, Answerbackism, and Fighter-Quarrelitis.

A playful take on fractured Greek myths in which Narrator Hades accuses his younger brother, Zeus, of being a Myth-o-maniac (old-Greek-speak for `liar’) and so sets the record straight.

Alex's active sense of humor helps him get along with the school braggart, make the most of his athletic talents, and simply get by in a hectic world.

The adventures and misadventures of two boys growing up in a small Vermont town.

When George and Harold hypnotize their principal into thinking that he is the superhero Captain Underpants, he leads them to the lair of the nefarious Dr. Diaper, where they must defeat his evil robot henchmen.

The six mean Herdman kids lie, steal, smoke cigars (even the girls) and then become involved in the community Christmas pageant.

Two boys set out to prove that worms can make a delicious meal.

After moving to a new town, Jonah, an eleven-year old with a big imagination, reinvents himself as a talk-show host, hoping this will somehow bring his mother's boyfriend back.

From eating too much chocolate, Henry breaks out in brown bumps that help him foil some hijackers and teach him a valuable lesson about self-indulgence.

In the hilarious tradition of Freaky Friday, comes the story of an everyday kid with an extraordinary problems when he turns into various people.

Brother and sister cats are taken in by a family and learn the pleasures and dangers of living alongside humans.

Because he is so different from his eccentric parents, twelve-year-old Guy is convinced he has been switched at birth with a classmate whose parents seem more normal.

Humor, magic, a school bully, a pet dachshund named Cheerio, and a pet iguana that slurps soup at dinner add up to a fun adventures.

Five stories offer comical rewrites of well-known horror movies:  Curse of the werewuss -- Frankenstein's hamster -- Attack of the space toupees -- I forgot what you did last summer -- The abominable showman.

Living alone in her wagon on the outskirts of a small town while waiting for her father's return, Rizka, a Gypsy and a trickster, exposes the ridiculous foibles of some of the townspeople.

Fourteen-year-olds Marci and Summer use a magic ring to turn two rats into cute boys so that they can have dates for the Spring Fling.

To prove to her parents that she is grown up enough to babysit, Alex tries to stay out of trouble for two weeks.

Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy's attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site.

Eleven-year-old best friends Jeff and Wiley, who like to give nicknames to their classmates, try to find the right one for the new girl Cassandra, while adjusting to the football coach who has become their new teacher.

In medieval England, fourteen-year-old Terence finds his tranquil existence suddenly changed when he becomes the squire of the young Gawain of Orkney and accompanies him on a long quest, proving Gawain's worth as a knight and revealing an important secret about his own true identity.

On the day he enters Kennedy High in Manhattan wearing a patch over one eye, sixteen-year-old Horace Hobart is urged to join the toughest gang at school.

A boy recounts his annual summer trips to rural Illinois with his sister during the Great Depression to visit their larger-than-life grandmother.

A thirteen-year-old girl gains a much more sympathetic understanding of her relationship with her mother when she has to spend a day in her mother's body.

Twelve-year-old Gary, known as Goon because of his constant clowning and joke-telling, tries to change his image and make new friends at school.

After their photograph of a robbery is published in the newspaper, Hector and Mando find themselves pursued by two goofy thieves.

Twelve-year-old Carolyn, who has always wished she were a boy, begins to see things in a new light when her sister is born.