Mrs. Jewls’ Assignment Board
Mrs. Jewls is one of the teachers at Wayside School. She has a great love of assigning book reports. In fact, there is a bit of recurring imagery which also becomes a running joke about being a student in her class. Students become use to the repetitive act of looking to what she has put up on that assignment board even though they quickly come to know exactly what is likely to be there:
“Read a book. Write a book report. Draw a picture.”
The Three Erics
Chapter 5 of the book is subtitled “Eric, Eric, and What’s-His-Name?” It is an ironic title because the person referenced there at the end also happens to be named Eric. The chapter is really a self-contained portrait of how the multiple subjects of self-esteem, popularity, and soft bullying all work in tandem in the classroom. The imagery describing the three Erics also intensifies the irony of the title:
“Eric Fry is strong and fast. He is usually the first one chosen when picking teams.
Eric Bacon is funny, clever, and just a little bit sneaky. Everyone in Mrs. Jewls’s class likes him, but no one completely trusts him.
Eric Ovens is kind, quiet, and 100 percent trustworthy. Sadly, that kind of person is often overlooked.”
The Cloud of Doom
The arrival of the cloud of doom is enough to actually cause Mrs. Jewls to gasp in terror at the sight of it. The initial imagery utilized to convey the physicality of the cloud of doom is fascinating because it is a described in terms of what doesn’t look like, leaving it up to the imagination of the reader to fill in the what has been left out:
“If Bebe were to draw it, her picture would look exactly like the inside of a vacuum cleaner bag, while the vacuum was still on. But Bebe had never seen the inside of a vacuum cleaner bag while the vacuum was still on. So she couldn’t draw it.”
The Unbreakables
A group of four students share a special bond of friendship so strong they are known as the Unbreakables. They take their special bond quite seriously, even to the point of having developed a private—is not exactly secret—handshake:
“Every morning, they met before school by the flagpole. They had a special four-handed handshake. Each would hold out one hand, and they’d lock thumbs to pinkies. Then they’d raise and lower their hands three times and shout, `Unbreakable!’”
