My Weirder-est School #10: Mr. Ott Is a Crackpot!

By Dan Gutman and Jim Paillot

With more than 30 million books sold, the My Weird School series really gets kids reading! This tenth book in the My Weirder-est School arc knocks it out of the park as A.J. and his friends learn how to play softball.

Batter up! A.J.’s class is going head-to-head against Dirk School in a charity softball game. The losing team must clean one of the toilets in the winning school with a toothbrush!

Retired baseball pro Mr. Ott is here to lead Ella Mentry School to victory. But will his weird coaching tactics be a home run, or a swing and a miss?

Perfect for reluctant readers and all kids hungry for funny school stories, Dan Gutman’s hugely popular My Weird School chapter book series has something for everyone. Don’t miss the hilarious adventures of A.J. and the gang!

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Feb 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9780062910844

Dan Gutman

Dan Gutman is the New York Times bestselling author of the Genius Files series; the Baseball Card Adventure series, which has sold more than 1.5 million copies around the world; and the My Weird School series, which has sold more than 35 million copies. Thanks to his many fans who voted in their classrooms, Dan has received nineteen state book awards and ninety-two state book award nominations. He lives in New York City with his wife. You can visit him online at dangutman.com.

Book preview

My name is A.J. and I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking about eating. I know, because that’s what I’m thinking about.

My friend Ryan thinks about eating all the time. He’ll eat anything, even stuff that isn’t food. One time, he ate a piece of the seat cushion on the school bus.*

The other day, we were in the vomitorium talking about our favorite meal of the day. My favorite meal is breakfast. Ryan said his favorite meal is brunch.

Brunch isn’t a real meal, I told him. It’s just breakfast and lunch at the same time.

In my family, we call that lunfast, said Michael, who never ties his shoes. It’s lunch and breakfast together.

Your family is weird, I told Michael.

"Our family likes to combine lunch and dinner, said Alexia, this girl who rides a skateboard all the time. We call it linner."

That’s not linner, said Neil, who we call the nude kid even though he wears clothes. In my family, lunch and dinner together is lupper.

That’s lunner, said Michael.

"Do you know what my family calls lunch and dinner? asked Ryan. Dunch."

We call lunch and dinner dinch, said Michael.

What?! I said. Dunch and dinch aren’t words.

They are too.

Are not.

Dunch and dinch are definitely not words. You should look them up in a dictionary. I bet they’re not there.

"Sometimes, my family has breakfast for dinner, said Andrea, this annoying girl with curly brown hair. We call it brinner."

I agree with Andrea, said her crybaby friend Emily, who always agrees with Andrea.

Breakfast for dinner? What’s up with that? I could see eating breakfast for lunch, or lunch for breakfast. I could see eating lunch for dinner, or dinner for lunch. But eating breakfast for dinner? If you ask me, that should be illegal. Meals should stay in their own lane.

Food is weird.

You probably think this book will be about food. Well, you’re wrong! It has nothing to do with food. Why do books have to start out with stuff that relates to the rest of the book? Who made up that dumb rule?

Anyway, after dunch—I mean lunch—we went back to class with Mr. Cooper.

Turn to page twenty-three in your math books, he told us.

Ugh. I hate math.

That’s when the weirdest thing in the history of the world happened. An announcement came over the loudspeaker.

Well, that’s not the weird part. Announcements come over the loudspeaker all the time. The weird part was what happened next.

"Mr. Cooper,