The theme of How to Survive Middle School, is don’t bully someone to make you look good. The authors’ purpose of the book was to entertain the reader. Over all, I thought it was a wonderful book. I would recommend this book for fifth or sixth graders, to help them face their troubles.
How to Survive Middle School is about a boy named David Greenberg and his struggles in middle school. So David would be the protagonist or main character. The antagonists, or sub characters, are:
-Elliot, David’s’ “best” friend.
-David’s Dad, who is a single parent.
-David’s sister, Lindsay, gives him a hard time.
-David’s mom, sends David and Lindsay letters, but never calls.
-Tommy, the school bully, and David’s worst nightmare.
The conflict of the book is that David lost his best friend, Elliot, to the school bully, Tommy. He doesn’t want to confront Tommy, or Elliot, because he’s scared he’s going to get a swirly, or get beat up.
The setting takes place in Bensalem, PA. A little background about the book; David’s mother left a few years ago to “find herself.”



It all starts when Elliot goes “girl crazy” over one girl. They spend the whole summer at the mall they never did what David wanted to do. That’s not how a friendship should work. It annoyed David he even told Elliot he was being a “jerk”. Then on the first day of middle school, Elliot tricks David into something that David will remember for the rest of his life.



Throughout David’s school year, he runs in to Tommy, and Elliot. He fears Tommy very much. He’s so scared of Tommy that he’s even scared to answer his own phone. I thought this was rather unfortunate.



I thought this book was a little like other fiction books, but it’s also different. The author did meet the goal of entertaining her reader. I was thoroughly pleased with this book.