MIDDLE SCHOOL THE WORST YEARS OF MY LIFE/ James Patterson
Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 288 pages, June 27, 2011
Fiction

Rafe Khatchadorian has lots of problems at home, but when it comes to school its worse. He has to deal with teachers, rules, and bullies. Luckily, he has his best friend, Leonardo, to make his first year of middle school a good year.
The setting is Hills Valley Middle School. The characters are Rafe, Leo, Mom, Georgia, Miller, Bear, Jean Galetta, and many teachers. The conflict is Rafe is trying to (with help from his best friend Leo) break every rule in the Hills Valley Middle School Book of Conduct. He is also facing the bully "Miller the Killer". The plot is this, Rafe arrives at H.V.M.S and starts Operation R.A.F.E. (rules aren't for everyone) and sets point values for different rules. Like chewing gum in class–5,000 points, running in the hallway–10,000 point, pulling the fire alarm–50,000 points, and many more. The book sounded like it’s in first person point of view because Rafe was telling how “he’d “did while he’s in school. The tone of the book is that Rafe is feeling hard headed, embarrassed, and brave. The mood of the book makes Rafe neither scared nor afraid to break the rules.
James Patterson achieved his purpose in the book due to the fact that you visualize what’s going on in the book; by the little pictures to guide you when you read and it tell you what’s going on if you get lost. A strength in the book makes some parts of the book funny, like when Rafe tries to sell Bears soda at school and only made 2 sell in 1 week and throughout the book, there are many funny drawings. A weakness is that if the wrong kid reads the book he or she might think that it’s ok to break rules in there school. I found that the book was interesting because I didn’t know how much a kid can go though in the 1st year of middle school. I would recommend this book to everyone that’s in 4th grade and up because it’s a book that really makes you think about how people survive in middle school or an early filling about middle school. I think in the book it shows you that even if you don't have friends, you can make them up and have adventures of your own.