Hey everyone! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. It's Thursday and this week's episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks is the 800th episode total of Star Trek spanning nine TV shows (ten if you count Short Treks) and thirteen movies, spanning 55 years. So that's pretty insane. Otherwise things are pretty quiet right now in my life, which is good. Today I'm going to be talking about the works of an author that I've enjoyed reading since I was a kid. So let's get into the works of Gordon Korman. For those of you who don't know, and are new to my blog, Gordon Korman is a Canadian author who is the author behind the Bruno & Boots books now published under the series name, Macdonald Hall. I'll be talking about all seven books in the series, as well as the two non-Bruno & Boots books of his that I've read. So let's get into it.
The first time I ever heard about Bruno & Boots was in the fourth grade. I was in a grade 4/5 split class and the fifth graders were reading The War with Mr. Wizzle, the fourth book in the series, as one of their novel studies. I think they read it after Christmas though I don't remember for sure. A year later, I had the same teacher as a fifth grader and because he was a fan of Gordon Korman's work, he used The War with Mr. Wizzle as one of our novel studies as well. So I first heard of this book in either late 1996 or early 1997, and then actually read it myself in either late 1997 or early 1998. In the sixth grade I read three more books by Gordon Korman, including two more books starring Bruno & Boots.
The first one I read was the very first book that Mr. Korman wrote, This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall, published in 1978. This book is very different from the other books in the series, because it feels like a book that a 12 year old would write. And that's because Mr. Korman WAS 12 years old when he wrote this as a seventh grade English project. Let me repeat that. Gordon Korman wrote This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall as a project for his grade 7 English class! It got published two years later, when he was 14 years old. I don't think I've ever heard of an author who was published at age 14 before this. So that's really cool. My grades 4 and 5 teacher owned this book and kept it in his classroom library, so he let me borrow it over the winter, when I was stuck inside for two out of the three recesses that we had at Greely Elementary School.
I'm pretty sure I read the third book in the series, Beware the Fish! next. This time I got it from the school library as this was the only Bruno & Boots book they had there. That I ever found anyway. We got a new librarian when I was in sixth grade, and she was in the process of reorganizing and updating the library. In fact I'm the reason she got more Animorphs for it as the old librarian had gotten one random book in the series and that was it. Anyway, I liked this one. It's not my favourite book in the series, but it was still pretty good.
The next Gordon Korman book that I read wasn't a Bruno & Boots book. It was a standalone novel called Radio Fifth Grade. I actually read this book multiple times. Back then I knew I wanted to be on the radio when I grew up, and this book, along with the TV series, Radio Active (on YTV), and the fact that I listened to the radio every single day, contributed to my desire to be on the radio. So much so that the principal at Greely Elementary School allowed me to have a radio show that was broadcast over the school's PA system, and participated as the show's producer and introduction announcer. I wish I could remember the name that I came up with for the show, but there's no record of it anymore as I didn't keep any of the scripts that I typed up and printed out every week from our PC that ran Windows 3.0 and there were no audio recordings of the show either like I did when I was in college. To this day I still haven't been able to find an actual copy of the book as it seems to be out of print, even the 2003 reprint edition. But, trust me, as soon as I can get my hands on a copy, I will read and review it on this blog, because it was an important book in my formative years. Around this time Nana bought me two Bruno & Boots books from a garage sale.
The first one was the original 1982 paperback edition of The War with Mr. Wizzle. The edition that I read in the fifth grade was either from the late '80s, from when Radio Fifth Grade was published (1989), or it was from the very early '90s. Nana was always buying stuff for my siblings and I at garage sales, which is how she came across this edition of The War with Mr. Wizzle. Thrilled that I had my own copy, I read it over and over again, in between readings of whatever Star Wars or Star Trek novel I got at the time. So that was cool.
The other Bruno & Boots book that Nana bought at that garage sale was the paperback edition of the second book in the series, Go Jump in the Pool!. This was my second favourite Bruno & Boots book after Wizzle. Maybe because it was the first proper Bruno & Boots book following This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall, the first one that actually felt like a Bruno & Boots book as I knew them. Most of the main characters we got to know over the course of the series, who weren't introduced in the first book, were first introduced here, like Sidney Rampulsky and Wilbur Hackenschleimer for example. Also, the quartet of Bruno & Boots and Cathy & Diane were in their more familiar roles starting here.
About 20 years later, I read the second book in the 39 Clues series, One False Note which was written by Gordon Korman. He wasn't the sole creator of this series, instead he collaborated with a group of authors, including Rick Riordan, to write and create the series. Kelly lent it to me during the summer of 2018, just before Tropical Storm Gordon hit us. I ended up reading it, along with book 1 and book 3, over the course of the few days where we had no power due to the storm. It was fun reading a book written by Gordon Korman during a power outtage.
In December 2018 I bought a boxset containing all seven Bruno & Boots books, under the title, Macdonald Hall. I immediately read through the entire series in a span of about a week. I'd only ever read the first four books in the series (out of order of course) so it was interesting to read The Zucchini Warriors, Macdonald Hall Goes Hollywood! (renamed Lights, Camera, Disaster!), and Something Fishy at Macdonald Hall (renamed The Joke's On Us) for the first time. Unlike with The War with Mr. Wizzle (renamed The Wizzle War), I didn't know what changes, if any, were made to the 2004 editions of the three later books in the series, aside from the title changes for the last two books in the series. Since buying the box set, I've reread the entire series once a year. I haven't done so yet this year, but I'm planning on doing so right after I've finished rereading It by Stephen King. Which might take me until October at the rate I'm going. We'll see though.
Sadly I haven't read any of Mr. Korman's books from the last decade. I just never really thought about picking them up. I might someday, but for now, all I want is a copy of Radio Fifth Grade because I would love to read that one again after more than 20 years. Maybe I'll get lucky and a used bookstore will have a copy, because Indigo Chapters doesn't have it available anymore and it's unlikely that Amazon Canada has it available.
Anyways guys that's it for me for today. I'll probably be back tomorrow for something. Not sure exactly what yet as I think I'm going to get some bloodwork done tomorrow at some point. So stay tuned. I'll probably pop up tomorrow afternoon for something. Until then have a great afternoon and I will talk to you all later. Take care.
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