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@Jade, I was glad to see your excellent review. You point out that GRK’s characters come up with funny insults (like “Geezer Squad”). I think that’s something I’ve always enjoyed—any name-calling is potentially hurtful, of course, but Kormanian characters tend to avoid actual mean words and instead use creative terms that are hard not to laugh at. Speaking of names, you said you like the Gianna Greco’s. Out of curiosity, are you pronouncing it “Jee-onna” or “Jonna”? Or something different? And I’m thrilled you like Jackson Sharpe, too. He’s a hoot. And YES, Gaston is the perfect comparison. I love your analysis that “the way eighth graders are painted from a seventh grader’s perspective is so well done.” It’s been a long time since I was part of a younger cohort in school, but some of the characters in OLD SCHOOL really refresh my memory on how big a deal it was to interact with students a grade or more ahead. Their wisdom! Their strength!

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The second quarter of OLD SCHOOL

With the new chapter and change of perspectives, we get to see Jackson Sharpe’s full phishing letter through Dexter’s eyes. No suspense on whether Dex will buy it—it works! And commence the misunderstandings as Dex credits Ms. Napier for his big chance to bypass the whole “going to school” thing. (You just know that will blow up at some point.) But then: Enter Teagan. Oh, so difficult when friends age differently. (I distinctly remember one classmate who was so into dinosaurs early in elementary school… and how awkward it was when he was still so into dinosaurs in fifth grade. He was still my age but he seemed to fit in better with my little sister’s friends.) The three-summers-old bird map (totally not a “chart”) is awesome, and the bird nicknames are amazing. “America’s Got Talons”!!!

It was good to see “Ronny Greco” as a chapter heading. And his perspective doesn’t disappoint. He may not be my favorite in OLD SCHOOL, but I think I appreciate his distinct voice most of all the characters. He has an opinion on every subject, and it’s a harsh opinion every time. Especially when the subject is Ms. Napier. And clearly Dex will join her on the short list of Ronny’s least favorite people at WEMS. Except—does Dex start to win him over just by being a decent guy! And now I need a “T-shirt” t-shirt.

Poor Gianna and her Pulitzer-worthy laminator story. Buried in the fold on the last page! And the culture shock is hilarious when she sees the behind-the-scenes life at The Pines. She’s the perfect narrator for a chapter of exposition about Dex’s arrival and early days at The Pines. So, he wasn’t always an old man disguised as a ‘tween—he was actually a mischievous little kid when he first showed up.

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I’ll keep going through chapters 8 to 15 but don’t want to rush so I’ll pause now and pick up again soon. Hope to see insights from some others who are reading OLD SCHOOL, too.

I do want to drop one more comment before breaking, though. I always like to look for similarities between a new story and previous books. Hey—if I loved something once, I’m thrilled to see a new take on it! I’ve seen some comments comparing OLD SCHOOL to SCHOOLED and some other Korman books. My comment is about associations to two non-GRK works:

> The Foreman parents as diplomats: I loved the Henry Reed books when I was young. Henry’s dad was a diplomat, and Henry came to the U.S. every summer where he stayed with his aunt and uncle (her mother’s much-older brother). That reminds me a bit of Dex’s situation. From a practical standpoint, the “diplomats serving abroad” approach is a neat way to separate a kid from his parents without having them dead or missing or neglectful.

> Codes: Dex and his buddy at The Pines, Leo (of “Bunker Boys” fame), identify creating a new code as a great option to fulfill the J. Enoch Dunwoody-assigned get-out-of-school project (that Jackson Sharpe made up, of course). As a kid, my version of the dinosaur awkwardness is that I loved stories about codes and ciphers and secret languages, way past the target age range for those stories. I read all the “junior detectives” series and Leo’s challenge to Dex to create a code that even he can’t crack has me super excited even now!