SOLVED. Book for Older Kids -- Prankster MC provokes the class bully and gets beat up. [s]

[Frank]

In the late '90s, I read this book about a boy whose love of pranks is constantly threatening to be his undoing.

Our protagonist is young--aged 10-12--and I think he lives in an apartment with his single mother. At one point in the book, he is overwhelmed by the urge to doodle on a diagram in his school depicting the evolution of man, wherein he writes the name of the class bully (which, purely for the sake of convenience, I will say is "Bubba") and draws an arrow pointing to a Neanderthal on the diagram. Our MC thinks that no one sees him do it; little does he know, however, someone DID see, and someone told Bubba. So, for much of the book (which is pretty short, well under 200 pages), he is trying to avoid Bubba because he knows he's gonna get pounded.

There's another scene in the book where he's looking at the face of the cliff and sees a protrusion that looks like a button. He gets a can of spray paint, and--because he cannot resist his urge for mischief--free climbs the rock face just so that he can paint "Push For Service" by the "button" (which, to him, is about as clever as can be). He almost falls to his death in the process.

I also remember another scene where it finally dawns on him that he will, in fact, be forced to face Bubba sooner or later, and he's wondering if he has enough time to master a martial art and/or pump iron and get ripped before that confrontation. (Of course, he quickly realizes how foolishly unrealistic that is.)

Near the end of the book, Bubba does, of course, catch up to him and beat him up. The MC staggers away, heading home with a bloodied face, when a kindly foreigner stops him and cleans him up and--in broken English--gives him some words of wisdom and encouragement.

Right before Bubba finds him and beats him up, the protagonist is hanging around a movie theater and notices a poster for "Gorgo," a detail that leads me to believe the story takes place in the early '60s. Also, I feel like the target audience was maybe 10-14. I do not remember this book's having any illustrations at all.

I suspect the book was published sometime between 1962 and 1990. Overall, I guess I would call the story a comedy, with the intent of conveying some important lesson ("Don't provoke the bear"?) to the young readers.

Not an amazing book, but not an awful book, either. It just drives me insane not knowing the title of something I committed a few hours to! I look forward to hearing your ideas!

[Rainbowheart]

The 18th Emergency

[Frank]

Yes, that’s the book!!! You amaze me. Thank you!

[Rainbowheart]

You're super welcome, glad to help out!