Middle School The WORST Years Of My Life! By: Elena McBride

Characters Rafe- Is the main character. He is adventurous and brave. He isn’t scared of getting in trouble. Georgia- Rafe’s little sister. Georgia gets into everyone's business and always talks. Jules (Rafe and Georgia’s Mom)- Is sweet, kind and caring. She works very hard. She cares a lot about her children. Leonardo (Leo)- Rafe’s best friend. He is always by Rafe’s side when he needs him. Leo is very artistic. Ms. Donatello (Dragon Lady)- Rafe’s English teacher. Rafe doesn’t exactly get along with her, but she believes in Rafe. Mrs. Stricker- The vice principal. Believe it or not, Rafe talks to her a lot in this book. Miller the Killer- The Bully at Hills Village Middle School. He is tough, and doesn’t exactly like Rafe. Mr. Rourke- Rafe’s homeroom teacher. Mr. Dwight- The principal. Rafe talks to him a lot in this book. Jeanne Galletta- Rafe has a huge crush on Jeanne. Jeanne is very smart and cares a lot about her grades. Bear (Carl)- Rafe’s almost stepfather. Rafe hates Bear, he is mean and doesn’t do a thing. Ditka- Bear’s dog. He is vicious and you wouldn’t want to get on his bad side.

Summary Middle School The Worst Years of my Life is about Rafe and his crazy journey through 6th grade. On Rafe’s very first day of Hills Village Middle school also known as “jail”, Mr. Dwight and Mrs. Stricker start the year off by reading all 112 of the rules at Hills Village. Rafe gets so bored an idea pops in his head. Why follow all the rules when you can do the complete opposite. Break all 112 of the rules at Hills Village Middle School by the end of the year. Rafe starts off with an easy one. He gets a bathroom pass but actually pulls the fire alarm. He walks out with the rest of the school with a grin on his face. This might not be as bad as he thought. His best friend Leo, decides he should call it operation R.A.F.E (Rules Aren’t For Everyone.) Rafe thinks the rest of the day will be easy. He thought wrong. He comes across the schools bully Miller the Killer. Miller is out to get Rafe and Rafe has to keep an eye out for him. Rafe keeps on breaking rules and gets caught but that’s good. If he gets caught he gets extra points. Breaking all those rules comes with detentions. Rafe meets a girl named Jeanne Galletta. Who might just be the prettiest girl in the world. Rafe is determined to get Jeanne to go out with him. He breaks rules to impress her. Jeanne isn’t exactly impressed though. Rafe lives with his annoying little sister Georgia, His wonderful, hardworking mom (Jules) and his almost stepfather (who he hates with all his guts) Bear (Carl). Rafe calls him Bear because all he does is sleep, eat, watch TV and drink his favorite energy drink, Zoom. Bear lives with them and doesn’t work at all while his mom works double shifts at Swifty’s diner. On Jules’ birthday Rafe and Georgia eat at Swifty’s with Jules as a waitress. Bear couldn’t make it. While Jules is taking their order Georgia blurts out that Rafe was naked in school today. Rafe had broken the dress code rule earlier that day. Jules eyes fill up with tears of disappointment. She walks away crying. Rafe runs after her and tells her that he’s sorry. Jules tells him to try harder. Rafe makes an announcement that he will be taking a break. In school, Rafe is impressing his teacher even Ms. Donatello who is always disappointed in him. Jeanne even asks him to go to a charity event and work with her! It turns out that Rafe had to dress up as a huge turkey and dance around! Rafe does an awesome job and asks Jeanne if she will get a pizza with him. Jeanne tells him that he was changing and maybe that would be good for him. Rafe was shocked he never wanted to see her face again. Rafe was back in the game. The next day he came face to face with Miller. He stole his operation R.A.F.E notebook with 70 pages of rules to break. If a teacher finds out his mom would never stop crying. Miller tells him it will cost a dollar a piece. Rafe wants to beat him up but what can he do. Rafe decide to sell Bear’s zoom to get money to buy some pages back. Christmas break was here and that’s when report cards were supposed to come. Rafe had already gotten rid of his because he was failing everything. That didn’t stop Jules from getting on the computer and checking. Jules declared that Bear would be checking his homework from now on. Miller said that since it was a new year now the pages cost $1.50 each. Rafe got so mad he and Miller had a fist fight. And just like that Miller and Rafe were in the office. Rafe’s mom was there too. Rafe got himself an in-school suspension and two tutors. Jeanne and Ms. Donatello. How could life get worse? Rafe kept breaking rules and buying pages. Rafe was planning his huge end of the year prank vandalizing the school. Rafe got up super early and painted on a wall of the school. Everyone found out and Jules and Bear got mad. He had an out of school suspension. Worst of all that night Miller had photo copied all of his drawings and dropped them off. Bear and Jules got in an huge fight and Bear pushed Jules and Rafe told Georgia to call 9-1-1. The ambulance came and Bear was kicked out of the house. The next day Rafe had to meet with the Principal’s and Donatello. He had to go to summer school to go to seventh grade. Donatello brought up an art school. Rafe got super excited. Jules said that he was very artistic and he had a twin brother named Leo. He died when he was very young and Rafe still talks to him. Rafe was getting to go to an art school even though he had summer school he was happy. Maybe this was a start of a good school year.

Recommendation I would recommend this book to everyone who loves to read. I’m not usually a big fan of cartoon books but this book I kept wanting to read it! I hated when we had to stop at a exciting part! The comics are hilarious, The way Rafe describes middle school is funny how he sees is and there are great adventures! I give this book five stars!