I'm not sure than middle school is any worse than high school. That was my personal hell. Felt like I was in a holding pen as an alternative to just locking us up.

But, I know I'll be seeing this because my (Not even yet 8 year old! Arrrrgh!) Devoured, just devoured, these books and I know he'll want to see them.

Maybe I'll homeschool him for middle school by taking him on an around-the world sailing trip. Preferably on a tall ship so he is totally distracted and spends his time climbing rigging rather than negotiating that shit.

**whimper**

i didn't find middle school (or "junior high school" as it was called in my day) all that horrible. perhaps it was because (a) i grew up and went to JHS in NYC, making me more independent, and (b) i was in a sort of hothouse environment, in that i did the 3-year program in 2 with the same group of classmates both years. i loved that the school was much further away from home than my grammar school, which meant i could either take public transportation, and i could walk home through a college campus.

for me, high school was *much* worse, especially when my parents decided to move us to the country, where i then was thrust into a real insular school, with a much smaller student body, and even the AP classes i took were full of narrow-minded, suspicious students who didn't like anyone who didn't fit one of two mold: the cherry-cheerleader/frankie football mode or the "artsie/hippy" mode. and the school bus that took us back and forth to school was my personal hell.

Actually, that looks quite cute.

Hey bronxbee, if you don't mind me asking, was your high school up here in the 'burbs? Because your experience sounds an awful lot like my own. :)

i graduated from Carmel High School in Putnam County, NY. at the time, it was just beyond the 'burbs. it was the honest-to-god country. now, of course, it's barely out of the urban areas. to this day, however, the phrase "living in the country" makes me shudder.

I found high school rather fun. Middle school however still has me wondering what thing I did or am going to do that made me deserving of that unique level of hell. I probably still have scars from those years.

You were just a bit north of me, bronxbee! I did time at Somers High, myself. I suspect those kinds of cliques and experiences are probably universal.

As a fairly recent high school graduate, I can promise you that today, middle school is far, far worse than high school. By high school, it seemed everyone for the most part had sufficiently matured and wised up that I was generally content (even as a complete nerd). Middle school was just a social nightmare, (perhaps especially as a complete nerd).

As for the movie, it'll probably be a nice time for parents accompanying their kids to nap.

My middle school homeroom teacher came right out and told us that middle school was the worst, and stongly implied that the powers that be made it this way to more or less quarantine us from the little ones who who were still innocent and the grown ones who were at least on their way to figuring things out. I'm pretty sure the subject came up during "health" class when we were discussing the changes we were going though. He was actually one of my favorite teachers; he was (mostly) honest, didn't talk down to us, and was actually quite kind. His larger point was that things were rough now but would get better. As far as the wimpy kid books and movies, I think of them as the children's equivalent to Jodi Piccoult. The idea is that seeing people in worse circumstances than themselves makes them feel better about their lot. And these books aren't nearly as manipulative as JP and at least have some humor in them, albeit the kind that speaks to ten-year-olds.