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Titles in Order of Publication:
 THE GREAT BLUEBERRY BARF-OFF! Rotten School #1
R.L. Stine
HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 0060785861
ISBN-13: 9780060785864
Ages 8-12
128 pages
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Meet Bernie Bridges. He rules Rotten School, a boarding school where the kids get to live in a dorm with their friends. No parents allowed. And that's just the beginning of the good stuff. Bernie talks dorm mother and core teacher Mrs. Heinie into giving extra credit for putting his name on the top of a test. And he convinces Headmaster Upchuck to make GameBoy an official school supply. But is he clever enough to find a way to get Sherman Oaks's new watch?
Sherman Oaks is everything that Bernie hates: rich, snotty and a resident of the rival dorm, Nyce House. But his watch is everything that Bernie loves: a DVD player, an MP3 player, a computer and 39 other functions. Bernie can't sleep at night because he's always thinking about that watch. At last he comes up with a brilliant idea: a pie-eating contest. If Bernie's dorm wins, then he gets Sherman's watch. If Sherman's dorm wins, then Bernie becomes Sherman's slave for a month.
The stakes are high, but Bernie has the perfect pie eater --- he can't lose. Unless Sherman is much more clever than Bernie thinks he is.
 THE GREAT SMELLING BEE: Rotten School #2
R.L. Stine
HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 0060785896
ISBN-13: 9780060785895
Ages 8-12
128 pages
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Bernie's pets miss him so much that his parents pack them up in a box and send them to Rotten School. The only problem is that pets aren't allowed at school. Bernie will have to keep them undercover, which is easier said than done. His beloved pets aren't exactly undercover types. Lippy, the parrot, likes to wake the dorm with charming lines like "Eat birdseed and die." Gassy, the dog...well, let's just say, she's named Gassy for a reason. When she farts --- which is about every five minutes --- it's not just smelly, it's a knock-you-off-your-feet-and-trample-you stink.
Mrs. Heinie, the dorm mother, has figured out there are pets in Bernie's room and threatens to search it from top to bottom. If she finds feather or fur, it'll be the end for Bernie's pets --- and Bernie will be packing his bags, too. Can even Bernie, king of schemers, find a way to keep himself and his pets squawking and stinking in Rotten House?
 THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE VERY SLIMY: Rotten School #3
R.L. Stine
HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 0060785926
ISBN-13: 9780060785925
Ages 8-12
128 pages
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Hooray for Bernie! April-May June, the hottest, coolest girl in Rotten School, has finally realized she's his girlfriend. Well, sort of. She has agreed to go to the dance party with him next Saturday --- if he can stay out of trouble for a whole week and if he's a straight-arrow, straight-A student. No sweat. Bernie gets in trouble because he wants to, not because he has to. Right?
Right. Of course, there's the slug race that Bernie has already organized --- whew, that's not until next week. And there's Mrs. Heinie, who is already suspicious of the new, perfect Bernie. But she can't prove anything. If Bernie can come up with a few good deeds and spend a couple of quality hours with his books --- where was that library again? --- then April-May will be walking into the school dance on his arm.
What happens though when his arch enemy and rival Sherman Oaks steps in and changes the date of the slug race? Will Bernie have to choose between his girlfriend and his slug?
 LOSE, TEAM, LOSE: Rotten School #4
R.L. Stine
HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 0060788089
ISBN-13: 9780060788087
Ages 8-12
128 pages
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With Bernie as quarterback, the Rotten School team can't lose. Except that they do --- every single game in fact. But why should Bernie care? His teammates carry him off the field anyway. The one thing that bothers him is that April-May June is cheering for Sherman Oaks's soccer games. Bernie has to win a few to get her to the football sidelines.
Enter his secret weapon: Jennifer Ecch. Nightmare Girl. So big and strong, she lifts weights in her sleep. And so in love with Bernie, she calls him honey bucket and chases him across campus. She'd do anything for him --- even play football. And with her on the team, they REALLY can't lose. They begin mopping up the league as Jennifer plows right through the opponents' defense and strolls to the finish line.
But wait. Does Bernie really want to win? Not only will he have to wear the sweaters Jennifer made for him --- really embarrassing sweaters, emblazoned with Bernie Loves Jen --- but if Rotten School makes it to the championships, they'll have to play the Bone-Breakers. The name says it all. Maybe it's about time for Bernie and his team to start losing.
 SHAKE, RATTLE, & HURL! Rotten School #5
R.L. Stine
HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 0060788119
ISBN-13: 9780060788117
Ages 8-12
128 pages
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The Plopps, Bernie's very favorite band, is coming to town, and the winner of Rotten School's Talent House gets two tickets to see them and go backstage! Bernie is determined that someone from Rotten House will win. Although Wes Upgood of Nyce House plays a killer saxophone, Bernie just knows there's someone in Rotten House who is more talented and a bigger star than that. How about his dog Gassy, who counts by farting? Or his henchmen Feenman and Crench, who start a band by riffing on toilet paper rolls? Or maybe Nightmare Girl, who has a surprising twist to her ventriloquist act?
None of these talents is exactly what Bernie is looking for. Then one afternoon, he hears an unbelievable sound from the depths of Rotten House --- a rocking, wailing, soaring guitar. Can Bernie find the creator of that magic music? And if he does, can he persuade him to enter the talent contest?
 THE HEINIE PRIZE: Rotten School #6
R.L. Stine
HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 0060788143
ISBN-13: 9780060788148
Ages 8-12
128 pages
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Belzer is Bernie's best friend --- and favorite slave. He brings Bernie pancakes in bed, does all his homework, and walks his dog. Plus, he's the top salesman for all of Bernie's moneymaking schemes: raffle tickets where Bernie keeps the prize money, $2 candy bars, t-shirts made out of rope. So when Belzer receives a letter from his parents telling him that he's such an underachiever they're taking him out of school, it's nothing short of a disaster. Bernie needs to find a way to prove that Belzer is the biggest achiever of all.
Every year, Mrs. Heinie awards the Heinie Prize to the most outstanding fourth grader. If Belzer can win that, then his parents would have to let him stay at Rotten School. Belzer? Outstanding? This is a kid who wears "I'm a loser" t-shirts and who gets his hand stuck in the candy machine. But if anyone can transform Belzer from loser into Heinie Prize winner overnight, it's Bernie!
 DUDES, THE SCHOOL IS HAUNTED! Rotten School #7
R.L. Stine
HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 0060788178
ISBN-13: 9780060788179
Ages 8-12
128 pages
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Joe Sweety is extra wide and extra mean. And due to a tiny misunderstanding, he's been spending his free time rearranging the nose of Chipmunk, one of Bernie's best friends. Bernie is tired of twisting Chipmunk's nose back into shape --- and he's tired of his friends getting picked on all the time.
When Joe runs screaming out of the auditorium during the screening of Scary Ghost Story III, Bernie has an idea. He'll convince Joe that there's a ghost in Nyce House that's after him. It's the perfect revenge. Of course, if Joe were to find out that the ghost is nothing more than a figment of Bernie's imagination, well, Chipmunk wouldn't be the only Rotten Student with a playdate with Mr. Fist and Mr. OTHER Fist. But Bernie is too smart to get caught. Isn't he?
 THE TEACHER FROM HECK: Rotten School #8
R.L. Stine
HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 0060788216
ISBN-13: 9780060788216
Ages 8-12
128 pages
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The great Water War rages at Rotten School. Billy the Brain turns everything he can find into a squirt gun --- his laptop, a head of lettuce, Bernie's dog Gassy. Sherman Oaks retaliates with ever bigger and more expensive squirt weapons. So Bernie has to fight back: he rigs up a set of water balloons to drop on the next unsuspecting guest to visit his room and invites Sherman over to sign a truce. He's sure that Sherman will be running back to Nyce House, dripping and crying. Except that the next guest isn't Sherman, it's Mrs. Heinie. And she doesn't just drip and cry...she quits!
Losing Mrs. Heinie isn't the worst of it though. Her replacement, Mr. Skruloose, thinks of himself as a general and his students as soldiers. He makes Bernie drop and give him 10 pushups just for being almost late. He assigns four hours of homework and three hours of morning drill, and puts Bernie and his friends on a diet of raw tree bark. Can Bernie find a way to send Mr. Skruloose packing? Or is he destined to be Private Bridges of Rotten Barracks forever?
 PARTY POOPERS: Rotten School #9
by R.L. Stine
HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 0060788240
ISBN-13: 9780060788247
Ages 8-12
128 pages
The Annual All Night Party is coming up and Bernie Bridges sees it as a great opportunity to make a fortune: selling flashlights and sweatshirts. So what if you have to bang the flashlights –-- hard --- to make them work and the sweatshirts say “I partied all night with Bernie”? Kids will be blind and cold --- they'll pay through the nose. Of course there is one little problem --- it's a boy-ask-girl dance and Bernie's girlfriend, April-May June, doesn't seem in any hurry to ask him. Of course that might be because she doesn't know she's his girlfriend.
One girl is more than happy to go with Bernie --- Jennifer Ecch. But Bernie spends all his time running away from Jennifer. She exercises by lifting a weightlifter over her head, and she romps all over the opponents as the star of the Rotten School football team. But can Bernie come up with a plan to get Jennifer to stop liking him? And if he does, then how will he get to the dance?
PARTY POOPERS is a welcome addition to the Rotten School series, with lots of surprises --- some of them wet and stinky!
THE ROTTENEST ANGEL: Rotten School #10
by R.L. Stine
HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 0060788275
ISBN-13: 9780060788278
Ages 8-12
128 pages
Bernie is used to having a room to himself --- he needs the space for plotting, scheming and planning. So when Mrs. Heinie assigns him the new kid, Angel Goodeboy, as a roommate, Bernie is annoyed. It doesn't take long before he's horrified, too. The rest of the campus loves Angel. And why not? Angel gives them free candy bars (stolen from Bernie's secret stash), offers them flowers (the ones Bernie ordered for his own crazy scheme) and delivers the good news to Nightmare Girl that Bernie wants to take her to Movie Night.
Then things go from bad to worse: Bernie finds himself sleeping on a cot, getting his own breakfast and even scrubbing toilets! This nightmare just can't go on. But even his closest friends and henchmen refuse to see Angel's true nature (after all, they're chomping on the stolen candy bars Angel gave them).
Is Bernie destined to spend the rest of the year with a boy who secretly out-rottens even him? Or can he hatch a scheme that will eject Angel from the dorm and return Bernie to the peace and quiet of his own spacious room?
PUNK'D AND SKUNKED: Rotten School #11
by R.L. Stine
HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 0060788305
ISBN-13: 9780060788308
Ages 8-12
128 pages
Who has his own room because he needs so much time and space to think up new schemes? Bernie Bridges. Who came up with the brilliant idea to convince Nurse Hanley that skittles are vitamin pills? Bernie Bridges. Who rigged up the most clever water balloon drop in the history of Rotten School? Again, Bernie Bridges.
So coming up with a great invention is no problem, right? Bernie can do it in his sleep. That's a good thing, because the stakes are high. The winner of the Make-A-Great-Invention contest gets to spend a week at Preppy Prep Prep, competing against the winners of five other schools. Ah, Preppy Prep Prep --- where every kid rides a Ferrari scooter to school, and every room has a jacuzzi. This is the school of Bernie's dreams.
Of course Bernie still has to come up with that pesky invention. Left-handed paper cup, reusable toothbrush, vacuum cleaner for the nose --- none of these seem quite right. But Bernie and the other kids from Rotten House have time left...another five minutes! Can Bernie once again save the day at the last second?
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BATTLE OF THE DUM DIDDYS: Rotten School #12
by R.L. Stine
HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 006078833X
ISBN-13: 9780060788339
Ages 8-12
128 pages
Bernie Bridges has incredible news: the board of inspectors is coming to Rotten School at the end of the week, and if everything isn't in perfect condition, the school will be closed forever. Perfect condition? Rotten School, where the students believe that head lice is the official school mascot? Where Chef Baloney serves vegetarian chili --- with mice? Where...
But Bernie doesn't have time to think about all that. He has bigger things to worry about, like how to come up with a final scheme to get rich quick, mainly at the expense of his classmates. The only problem is that the students at Rotten School have traded in schemes and dreams for the virtual excitement of the Wungo Warriors computer game. They're so busy being Doo Wah Diddy Dragons and Knighty Knight Knights that they don't even hear the flap of Bernie's empty wallet.
Can Bernie find a way to get them off the computer and line them up to be victims of --- I mean, participants in --- his latest scheme? And if he does, can he save Rotten School at the same time?
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GOT CAKE?: Rotten School #13
by R.L. Stine
HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 0061232696
ISBN-13: 9780061232695
Ages 8-12
128 pages
Bernie Bridges is the most popular boy in school…and now he has a chance to prove it. For its hundredth-year anniversary, the Rotten School yearbook --- The Rotten Egg --- is bringing back the grand old tradition of Most Popular Rotten Egg. The winner gets a whole page to himself! Of course, if things were fair, Bernie would win, hands down. But can he outspend Sherman Oaks, who's handing out video iPods? Can he outflirt April-May June, who's batting her big blue eyes at the yearbook editor?
Bernie’s first idea, having the yearbook photographer follow him around with a camera and snap pictures of him being adored by his fans, goes awry when the photographer forgets the film. But now he has it --- a birthday bash to end all birthday bashes. With the friends flowing into the party, it’ll be all the evidence the yearbook editor needs. Unless something goes wrong at the last minute. Nah, what could go wrong? Bernie has Most Popular Rotten Egg all sewn up…
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NIGHT OF THE CREEPY THINGS: Rotten School #14
by R.L. Stine
HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780061232725
Ages 8-12
128 pages
Bernie Bridges is the brainiest, coolest, most awesome kid at Rotten School...and it's about time to let the rest of the world join his adoring fan club. Bernie is about to become a movie star. B.A. Gool, the famous horror film director, is an alumni of Rotten School --- in fact, he got the idea for his first movie, Bugs on My Face, from the insects that crowded his dorm room in Rotten House. Now the featured speaker on Welcome Back Day, he announces a horror film contest: whichever Rotten student makes the scariest horror video will win a part in Gool's next film.
Bernie can already see the lines of smitten fans, the paparazzi snapping pictures, the red carpet at the next movie premiere. Because, after all, who has more or better ideas than Bernie? The Attack of the Toad People, for example --- well, that one would work better if Beast didn't gobble all the smelly, slimy toadstools meant to star in the video. Well, what about The Beast and the Beast, starring Nightmare Girl? Of course, she's too busy beating Bernie up to do much acting in that one. It doesn't help that every student on Rotten campus is waving a video camera and coming up with great ideas of their own.
The contest finals are only a few nights away, on Halloween. Can Bernie come up with a great idea that will frighten even the director of the scariest movies in the country? Of course he can --- he's Bernie Bridges after all!
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CALLING ALL BIRDBRAINS: Rotten School #15
by R.L. Stine
HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780061232756
Ages 8-12
128 pages
Who wins every hand of Uno at the Rotten School late night poker games? Who manages to talk himself out of even the stickiest situations? Who has the coolest, hottest girl at Rotten School for a girlfriend? (She doesn't know it yet, but that's a different book.) Bernie Bridges, of course. How does he do it? He's charming and brilliant, but that's not enough --- he's lucky too.
Staggering back to the dorm after an all-night poker session, Bernie admits the truth to his best friends, Feenman and Crench: his constant companion, Lippy, is actually a lucky parrot. Lucky enough that Bernie puts up with her sticky, stinky bird poop, lucky enough that he tolerates her aggravating squawking. Eager to grab a bit of her luck for themselves, Feenman and Crench rub her head --- hard, harder, hardest --- until they rub off all her feathers.
Was the luck all in her feathers? It must have been because all of a sudden Bernie gets caught sneaking into his dorm and has to scrub the bathroom floors. He loses every game of Uno even before his hands touch the cards. He tries to hide from Nightmare Girl, but she catches him behind the very first bush. Even worse, she signs up to partner with him in the upcoming I.B. Rotten games. And if they don't win, she threatens, she'll turn him into a pretzel.
Has Good Luck Lippy transformed into Bad Luck Lippy? Bernie loves his bird, but if he doesn't get rid of her, he's going to be sprinkled with salt and dipped in mustard. Love vs. luck...it's time for Bernie to make a choice!
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DUMB CLUCKS: Rotten School #16
by R.L. Stine
HarperCollins
ISBN: 9780061232787
Ages 8-12
128 pages
Bernie's new scheme for making millions is brilliant: Tweenage Mutant Ninja Tadpoles t-shirts. Who wouldn't want a shirt with a picture of TV's most popular foursome? Well, the kids at Rotten House, for one. They're obsessed with a new show called “Stupid Chicken.” Meanwhile, those at Nyce House have moved on to “Drastic Duck,” the caped quacker. And of course there's Nightmare Girl and her followers, all cooing like the star of “Power Pigeon.” Bernie will never off-load those t-shirts!
Then Principal Upchuck, of all people, gives Bernie a second chance by putting him in charge of the Parents' Day Committee. He has to raise enough money for refreshments. Can he squeeze enough bucks out of the chicken, duck and pigeon fanatics to buy punch and cookies, with a little something left over for the Bernie Bridges Private Charity Fund? Or will Parents' Day be the disaster that finally gives Upchuck the excuse to send Bernie packing?
-- Reviewed by Paula Jolin.
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