This Can't Be Happening!

Alison Mews is co-ordinator of the Centre for Instructional Services at
Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Originally published in the late 1970s, Korman’s Bruno & Boots books
have been reissued as the Macdonald Hall series. These are the first two
of seven books set at the private boarding school of Macdonald Hall,
where two mischievous boys plan one practical joke after another and try
to fix things with even more preposterous pranks when their plans go
awry. The humour is as fresh and funny as it was 25 years ago, and with
the resurgence of interest in boarding school books made popular by
Harry Potter, these two titles will find a ready audience with today’s
young people.

In This Can’t Be Happening!, which was written as a school project
when Korman was 12, Headmaster Sturgeon tires of the boys’ antics and
forbids their further association. The friends, unhappy with the
separation and with their new roommates, try one ill-advised scheme
after another to persuade the headmaster to change his mind. It takes
the rescue of a runaway balloon’s passenger, who causes spectacular
chaos when mistaken for an alien invader, to reunite the boys. Although
there are stereotypes galore (science geek, spoiled rich kid, and
humourless headmaster), the book is a page-turner, its zany events
unfolding at a breathless pace.

Go Jump in the Pool! finds Bruno and Boots persuading the whole school
(and the nearby girls’ school) to stage fund-raising events to acquire
a much-needed pool. The rummage sale results in a police accusation of
armed robbery, the talent show is blind-sided by Mrs. Sturgeon’s
tendency to flash pictures at inopportune moments, and the photo contest
escalates into bizarre pranks intended to capture candid reactions.
Although the boys’ events don’t raise enough money, they do raise
school spirit, along with the ire and grudging admiration of the
headmaster. Eventually, they do obtain the necessary funds, and it is a
hilarious, if improbable, ride to that achievement.

Both books have had minor tinkering to update them. In This Can’t Be
Happening, the fancy electronics owned by the wealthy snob now include a
flat-screen TV and satellite dish, and in Go Jump in the Pool! the cost
of a pool has doubled to $50,000. Comical and undemanding, with plenty
of snappy dialogue, these books will appeal to reluctant and able
readers alike. Recommended.