No More Dead Dogs

Korman, G. (2000). No more dead dogs. New York, NY: Scholastic.

This is the story of a boy named Wallace Wallace, who is a football star but clashes with his eighth grade English teacher.  Mr. Fogelman wants him to write a review of a classic novel, Old Shep, My Pal.  Mr. Fogelman loves the book and has written a play for the drama club to perform based on the book about a dog that dies.  After Wallace starts to serve detention everyday at the drama rehearsals until his book review is written properly, he begins to help them make changes to the play, making it a modern version of the play.  This unexpectedly adds an excitement in the students that wasn't present before.  Meanwhile, someone is sabotaging the set and rehearsals.  Is it Wallace?  The football team is mad that Wallace doesn't just write the review and get back to playing football to help them win.  Is it a teammate who is doing all the sabotaging?  It is the night of the big play...will it be sabotaged too? 

This was an enjoyable book to read.  It has humor - for one, why do we keep having our students read books with dead dogs?  (Old Yeller and Where the Red Fern Grows to name a couple.)  That is the premise of Wallace not wanting to write his report.  The different "groups" of kids and how they interact, or don't, is also sometimes humorous.  This is a light-hearted book with a good lesson hidden within.