Who Ran My Underwear Up the Flagpole?

School Daze #3

by Jerry Spinelli

In the sequel to Report to the Principal's Office, sixth-grade misfits Sunny, Eddie, Salem, and Pickles jump on the school spirit bandwagon, but they do not agree to follow the crowd.

Genres: Childrens, Realistic Fiction, Fiction, Middle Grade, Young Adult, Humor, Friendship

127 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

When Jerry Spinelli was a kid, he wanted to grow up to be either a cowboy or a baseball player. Lucky for us he became a writer instead.

He grew up in rural Pennsylvania and went to college at Gettysburg College and Johns Hopkins University. He has published more than 25 books and has six children and 16 grandchildren.
Jerry Spinelli began writing when he was 16 — not much older than the hero of his book Maniac Magee. After his high school football team won a big game, his classmates ran cheering through the streets — all except Spinelli, who went home and wrote a poem about the victory. When his poem was published in the local paper, Spinelli decided to become a writer instead of a major-league shortstop.

In most of his books, Spinelli writes about events and feelings from his own childhood. He also gets a lot of material from his seven adventurous kids! Spinelli and his wife, Eileen, also a children's book author, live in Pennsylvania.

Reviews

[Shayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

SO ADORABLE. As always, Jerry Spinelli writes the best characters. It makes me really sad that I only have one book left to read in this series.

I'm in love with Pickles Johnson and I wish I could insert myself into the story and be part of this 6th grade gang. I mean really, riding around with your best friends on a surfboard converted into a skateboard that looks like a pickle? Sounds amazing.

Anyways, I laughed out loud a bunch of times while reading this one and was smiling the rest of the time. I love Jerry Spinelli so much.

[Thegrayrose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think I've laughed so hard in my life. Pickles is so cool! Salem is so awesome. Poor Eddie but talk about a great story. I'm 26 and I still read this book from time to time.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can always count on Spinelli for an engaging & smart read. Good clean fun about kids who are lucky enough not to have any heavy issues, nonetheless their issues matter to them. This particular book focuses a bit more attention on Salem, the wannabee author, as she attempts to find a way to support the football team. But Sunny and the boys are brightly drawn individuals, too, as is the principal.

I need to reread the others (it's been years!) to find my way around all the details... but only because I want to. The book does stand alone just fine. And since they are older books, and in some ways a bit dated, I probably won't be able to find them in the libraries. :sigh:

[jacky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was fun and interesting to me when I read it. I only read this book from the series. I don't think I realized it was a series as a kid, or I probably would have read more of them. As an adult, I find it funny that this is the only Jerry Spineli book I read when he has so many other great ones out there.

While I remember reading this book, I remember very, very little about the plot itself. It was an okay read to pass the time, but nothing about it jumped out at me; it isn't memorable almost 20 years later.

[Suzy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, I only read this book to help my son with a school project. I think if I were 9, I would actually enjoy this book, but given that I'm not, it really wasn't enjoyable to me.

[Syl-G6 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The sequel to ‘Report to the Principal’s Office’, ‘Who Ran My Underwear Up The Flag Pole’ is a funny, friendship, and fabulous book! Four main characters, Eddie, Pickles, Salem, and Sunny seem very different but are best friends. Eddie is the sensitive kind as Sunny is totally unaffected by any comments. Salem likes to organize and is very responsible when Pickles likes to invent ways out of trouble. They meet each other at the new middle school that was built because of population growth; each considers on trying being more mature because they are ‘bigger kids’ now. It is football season and a perfect chance to prove that. Everybody is trying to do something to be more mature. Eddie tries out for football and for bonus, tries to impress Sunny, whom he’s got his eye on. Sunny, as grouchy as can be, is the first cheerleader in history that doesn’t smile and she beats up fans who won’t cheer. Salem volunteers to be the football team manager and tries to cheer up the devastated football players that are on a losing streak all while Pickles leads the sad and pathetic 7 person band, plus a violinist.

How could these four friends turn these around when Sunny got pushed off the cheerleading team, their gym coach quits coaching the football team, the football team wants to quit and Eddie got his underwear hanged up on a flag pole? Well, things started to turn around when Salem becomes the nurse of the football team and everyone likes her. When Sunny beat up a fan, he went running and knocked over an opposing team’s player. Eddie earns a place on their team and doesn’t feel left out because he scored a touchdown, the only touchdown their team had for the whole book. Salem brought a new time-out tradition by bringing a buffet of goodies in her suitcase for the football players and got their moral up. They were singing on the field and didn’t look at all depressed. Football season for their new middle school turned out better than they expected. They even had a meeting with fondue and learned some secrets about each other; they decided to go to the Halloween Party but ended up trick-or-treating instead, all four friends were happy and had what they wanted turned out.

This is a hilarious book, especially when Salem and Sunny try out for cheerleading team and Sunny made Salem do the cheerleading dance in front of her so she could help her improve so Salem might make it to into the cheerleading team. But Sunny said she can’t do the ‘wiggle’ and it totally cracked me up! It also mentions it many times in the book which makes me laugh. Also I think it was funny that Salem brought different kinds of food to persuade the football team to keep playing, and everyone went to her for guidance and how Salem had cures for everyone, each a different way. Also it was funny when Salem was tying Eddie his pants because they fell down once and Salem doesn’t want them to fall down again. Eventually, everyone else had that problem and throughout the entire day, Salem tied half of the footballs team’s pants! (LOL!)

This book is great at showing a lesson too; friends can help one another, no matter what situation, because when Eddie had his underwear hanged up by the flag pole, Pickles and Salem helped get Eddie’s underwear off the pole and hang up the American flag. Eddie felt embarrassed because he wanted to be more mature but showing that he still wears Superman underpants, in his perspective, makes him look childish. They tried to comfort Eddie and got him up and laughing like nothing ever happened.

This is an excellent book for 5th and 6th graders, fun to read and normal but exciting experiences with Eddie, Sunny, Salem and Pickles! It gives a more zoomed in view on a 6th grader’s life and points we have never thought of before!

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember laughing so hard when my dad read this to my brother and me, so I was pumped to find it again, but then I was uncomfortable to find that it was written by Jerry Spinelli, the author of Newberry book Maniac Magee, which rubbed me the wrong way in fifth grade. The principle things I remember about WRMUutF are Eddie in class in his underpants and the kiss with the hamster mask on, and the thing I remember about Maniac Magee is that the zookeeper died and Maniac(?) read to his corpse for three days before telling an adult, and I remember the zookeeper was similar to Timothy in The Cay, which we also had to read in fifth grade, as a benign old Black man who acts as a sidekick to white boy in an unrelatable story I didn't care for when I was eleven. I didn't know the term "magical negro" in fifth grade, but I googled it before I read Who Ran and found this essay: http://readingwhilewhite.blogspot.com... that confirmed my misgivings about Maniac Magee. Fortunately(?), Who Ran My Underwear up the Flag Pole manages to circumvent Maniac Magee's problematic approach to race by omitting all people of color entirely from the story. Four white kids: Eddie, Pickes, Salem, and Sunny, all try to fit in in sixth grade by associating themselves with the football team and it is damn funny. I did remember the underpants bit correctly, and that was great. I didn't laugh out loud, but apparently I'm an adult and I laugh out loud at the subtle British manners of Angela Thirkell books nowadays, so it's me, not Spinelli. Underpants are still funny. Eddie decides to redeem himself by joining the football team, and Salem becomes the team manager to gain Life Experience, and she moms the little boys who the football coach treats harshly. There's a presentation of gender roles in this text that's questionable, but it's tempered by the sense that sixth graders are little and don't do well when they're yelled at, and it's sweet. There is so much football in this book. So much. I did not remember that two thirds of it is entirely football and it goes on so long until you realize that it's a set-up for the crescendo when the kid vomits on the ball and the other players are gagging and wiping their hands on the grass while Eddie runs down the field as the marching band stomps around on the field trying to form a P and then I did laugh out loud. That was a bloody genius comic series of events. I loved it. Then the four main kids have an eleven-year-old party with fondue and spilling and almost getting to first base. It was a nice way to be a book for young readers. I'm probably not going to read the other three books in the series unless they fall in my hands easily for free again, but I enjoyed this, and the amount of football-related action makes more sense as .16% of four books, and not two thirds of a non-sports book.

[Diego · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I like about this book is that it is about football, and it is a sport. Something that has intrigued me is, did Eddie cut ALL of his hair off? Something that I kind of like is that it talks about a BOY KISSING A GIRL, or that they are trying to make them kiss each other. This book is 4 stars. I think it is super disorganized, and talks about like 10 topics at the same time, and it ends at the middle of a conversation. Even though it is so disorganized, all of the topics are interesting and make you want to keep reading. I recommend this book to people who are kids and that like romance books.

[Thomas Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this. I wish Sunny and Eddie had learned a little bit after the first book. But hey, it's only been a few weeks since then, and they're only in 6th grade, so what do you expect?

Altogether, I like the way these stories are going. Kids learning to stick up for eachother even in difficult middle school situations. Well, except Pickles - he seems to already know how to stick up for everyone!

[Raphy D · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this was a good story except for the ending to me it made no sense. I also don’t understand the shape of the pickle bus. I feel bad for Eddie though. I think
This story is just about one of the funniest I’ve read in a long time. If you like the kind of book about school kids than this Is one you should read. I would have given this 4 stars if the ending was better.

[Nancy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Humorous in typical Spinelli fashion, but this one had too many "mature" references. The bullying was awful, and quite a picture of some of what actually does take place in today's schools. Kudos to the principal and the little group of friends that made life bearable.

[Random Scholar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fun sequel to "Report to the Principal's Office". Sunny, Pickles, Salem, and Eddie are now in sixth grade trying to be grownups. The whole book is hilarious. The kids are very relatable and this would be a great hit with students in sixth grade.

[Moonshadow · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is actually book #2 in the School Daze series!!!
#3 is Do the Funky Pickle!

So fun and cute!

[Vita Luna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read about the wish of growing up, and about not quite being ready to do so

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

With Davey

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laugh out loud fun, me and my 9 year old really enjoyed the fun adventures a few friends who just started 6th grade have. Love Spinelli!

[CC. Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you are above the age of 8 or 9, you probably won't like this book. It is part of the School Daze series. I'm not sure which one in the series and I don't think it matters. The plot wasn't complicated enough to worry about.

There are four main characters who are best friends: Sunny, Salem, Eddie, and Pickles. Everyone is reacting to the new school year differently. Sunny has become a cheerleader and promptly gets in a fight with a fan who isn't peppy enough. Salem has become the football team's manager and institutes snack time and counseling sessions. Eddie is trying to overcome the embarrassment of having his Superman underwear run up the flagpole by getting a reputation as a mean, tough football player. Pickles is, well, just Pickles. There also seems to be strange love square going on. Eddie likes Sunny. Salem likes Eddie. Sunny might like Pickles. Pickles, well, he's just Pickles.

This book was such a throwback to a simpler time, before text messaging and technology--a time when kids played outside, played with one another, actually conversed! It had a nice old-fashioned feel to it. But, it wasn't too old-fashioned. The topics and characters are still relevant to today's youth-crushes, troubles with friends, unrequited crushes, bullying at school, not being the best at sports and that age-old dilemma: When is one too old to trick-or-treat?

[Josiah · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Feelings hurt more than bones. You have to let it out, don't you know that?"

—Salem Brownmiller, "Who Ran My Underwear Up the Flagpole?", P. 55

I would give this book a definite two and a half stars.
Jerry Spinelli's inimitable writing style lays out for us, his readers, a literary treat that flows as smoothly as a babbling brook and melts to the reader's taste as sweetly as Salem's chocolate chip cookies.
The really good thing about these books in the School Daze set is that even though a cursory glance at the cover might lead the reader to think that they will be superficial, silly stories, I have found the first two volumes to be very insightful and sensitive in their presentation of valuable life lessons, as well as being comically written and highly enjoyable. Pickles, Eddie, Salem and Sunny are interesting people, and have uniquely individuated personalities that make for good reading.
It would be my assertion that most readers will be surprised by the depth in this book. If one is acquainted with the overall works of Jerry Spinelli, however, than perhaps surprise might not be in the offing, after all.

[Annarino K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Targeted squarely toward the preteen set, but I don't know whether it's sophisticated enough for today's jaded preteens. I am taking some risks by reading things like this to my advanced 2nd grader. But Spinelli's a Newberry winner and writes smooth flowing prose that's easy to manage so it was worth a try.

Light amusing plot about 4 standard-issue sixth-graders representing a reasonable cross-section of middle-class white suburbia. This one is not heavy handed and aside from the incident for which the book is named, these kids aren't facing any overwhelming challenges.

At times I worried about the themes, as when Salem hosts a dinner party for her chums. She is the most mature, the intellectual and the caretaker of the group, and she has been thinking a lot about participating in grown-up life. In particular, kissing boys.

At school, my kiddo is learning about author point-of-view and purpose, so when we finished this one, I asked what the theme of the book was. "Growing up," came the correct reply. And are they ready or do they want to still be kids for a while, I followed up. "They want to be kids for a while." Thank goodness!

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this much more than "Do the Funky Pickle". I still think "Report to the Principal's Office" was much better; especially after finishing it with my class again this year. They always LOVE it. There were lots of amusing parts in this that 5th graders would crack up over; especially if they have the background knowledge on the characters. I hate that they mentioned sex. It wasn't bad or descriptive, but as usual, I just didn't think it was necessary. I liked how the kids wanted to kiss members of the opposite sex; and then decided they weren't quite ready for it. That is completely age appropriate and sends a positive message. All in all it's a good follow up for the series.

[Drexel 6 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about a football team called Plumstead. This book is about drma, a lot of drama. They put kids’ underwear on the flagpole and mess with kids. The type of kids or adults that would like this book are people that like funny books, also people that like drama books. My reactions for this book were funny and like, “oh my!”

[Susan Katz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jerry Spinelli is always good, but since I'm partial to his more serious books, I wasn't prepared for the slapstick belly laughs in this one. I won't soon forget the marching band and the Fighting Hamsters.

[Elizabeth Boardman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok.. I read this book to my sixth graders and some parts I think were a little inappropriate but I have to keep in mind that tho ewe kids have seen so much anyway because of TV that this book is nothing.. Overall I liked the book and it was real funny

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this with my 3rd grade son. Although entertaining, I felt there were some unnecessarily parts... both language and subject material. Also, this book is definitely dated as certain references had no relevance to today's culture.

[Diana Pettis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guided Reading level U: Very witty story about four students in grade 5 and the how the friendship these characters have make them better. Lots of humor in text. I'd use this text to work on vocabulary and character relationships.

[Dayna Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

A continuation of the School Daze series for those who enjoyed Picklemania and Do the Funky Pickle. Pickles has joined the band, Sunny tries out for cheerleading, Salem becomes the football team's manager, and Eddie goes out for football. Spinelli fans will love this book.

[k-swiss · Rating 3 out of 5]

some people like it i don't.

[Mr. Noc · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good.
I kinda wish that I had followed his further back in he day.
Out of print purgatory was the fate of the rest in this series.
And to Brown....

Sit on it.

[Deborah Harris]

AR Quiz No. 59074 EN Fiction
Accelerated Reader Quiz Information IL: MG - BL: 5.0 - AR Pts: 4.0
Accelerated Reader Quiz Type Information AR Quiz Types: RP, VP

[Rosie · Rating 3 out of 5]

i feel that pickles is a very good character.so i should really find picklemania, even if i have to rummage through different branches of secondhand bookstores.