Best School Year Ever

When anything goes wrong at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School, from the hexing of Bus Six to the mysterious disappearance of the kindergarten gerbil, it's sure to have a Herdman behind it. The Herdmans are more than famous-they're outlaws. They smoke cigars, lie, and set fire to things, and that's only when they bother to come to school!

Then a school project forces the students to think of compliments for all their classmates-including the Herdmans. Is it possible that behind their outrageous pranks there may be something good about this crazy clan after all?"The many readers who laughed out loud at Robinson's last uproarious novel The Best Christmas Pageant Ever will enthusiastically welcome the return of the six cigar-smoking Herdman kids."—Publishers Weekly."Beth Bradley, narrator and sixth-grade classmate of Imogene Herdman...explains in hilarious detail how the Herdmans are behind every minor catstrophe that occurs in town...Beth concludes that if Imogene doesn't go to jail, she could become president. Robinson's readers will look forward to finding out which will be."—K.

Children's Choices for 1995 (IRA/CBC)

1994 "Pick of the Lists" (ABA)

Winner, 1996 Colorado Children's Book Award

1996 Flicker Tale Children’s Book Award (ND))

1997 Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’Book Award (IL)

1997 Children’s Choice Book Award (IA)

1997 South Dakota Prairie Pasque Book Award

South Carolina’s 1996-97 Children’s Book Award

1996-97 Golden Sower Award (NB)

1997 Volunteer State Book Award (TN)

1997 Children’s Crown Award (NCSA)

1998 PA Young Reader’s Choice Award

1998 NM Land of Enchantment Book Award

1998 GA Children’s Book Award

1999 Nene Award (HI)

Buckle up for a wild ride involving a missing gerbil, a crazy cat, and a tattooed baby that will have readers of all ages laughing

This hilarious novel stars the Herdmans, the worst kids in the world, who made their first appearance in author Barbara Robinson's classic The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

In The Best School Year Ever, Imogene, Claude, Ralph, Leroy, Ollie, and Gladys Herdman haven't changed a bit. They still set things on fire and knock the other kids black and blue.

One day the teachers ask all the students to think of compliments for their classmates, and Beth Bradley picks Imogene Herdman's name. At first, Beth can't think of anything good, but soon she begins to see Imogene in a new light.

Maybe behind all of the outrageous pranks, there is something good about the Herdmans?

Lionsgate is releasing a live action movie version of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever on November 8, 2024, directed by Dallas Jenkins of The Chosen and featuring actors Judy Greer, Lauren Graham, Elizabeth Tabish, and Pete Holmes, coming to a theater near you

The Herdmans are back so buckle up for a wild ride involving a missing gerbil, a crazy cat, and a tattooed baby that will have readers of all ages laughing

This hilarious novel stars the Herdmans, the worst kids in the world, who made their first appearance in author Barbara Robinson's classic The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

In The Best School Year Ever, Imogene, Claude, Ralph, Leroy, Ollie, and Gladys Herdman haven't changed a bit. They still set things on fire and knock the other kids black and blue.

One day the teachers ask all the students to think of compliments for their classmates, and Beth Bradley picks Imogene Herdman's name. At first, Beth can't think of anything good, but soon she begins to see Imogene in a new light.

Maybe behind all of the outrageous pranks, there is something good about the Herdmans?

When anything goes wrong at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School, from the hexing of Bus Six to the mysterious disappearance of the kindergarten gerbil, it's sure to have a Herdman behind it. The Herdmans are more than famous -- they're outlaws. They smoke cigars, lie, and set fire to things, and that's only when they bother to come to school!

Then a school project forces the students to think of compliments for all their classmates -- including the Herdmans. Is it possible that behind their outrageous pranks there may be something good about this crazy clan after all?

In a humorous and insightful novel reminiscent of her award-winning titles The Thing About Georgie and Umbrella Summer, Lisa Graff tells the story of fourth-graders Kansas Bloom and Francine Halata, who start out as archenemies, until--in a battle of wits and willpower--they discover that they have a lot more in common than either would have guessed.

This dual-perspective novel will appeal to girls and boys alike--and to anyone who has ever wanted anything so badly that they'd lick a lizard to get it.

In Her Own Words ...

I grew up in a small southern Ohio town, and began writing when I was in the fourth or fifth grade, as a hobby and for fun. I'm happy to say it's still fun today, probably because every book I write has to be a book that I also want very much to read. I'm like the reader who turns the page to see what happens next - except, of course, that the page is blank. But I then get to fill it up with whatever seems exciting, funny, scary, happy or sad ... and with characters who become as real to me as my next-door-neighbors - so real, in fact, that sometimes they just step in and show me 'what happens next.'

Since I'm one of those writers whose story ideas spring more from people than from plot, I spend a lot of time with my characters, so they tend to be people I like to spend time with - even the wild and woolly Herdmans, who inhabit two of my books, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and The Best School Year Ever. I have a special fondness for the Herdman adventures, probably because boys and girls have told me that these are their favorites, and that's the most important thing to me.

Since leaving my small town - though I don't think writers ever really leave the place where they grew up; certainly the flavor of a small town is present in everything I write - I've lived in Pittsburgh, Boston, and, now, in a suburb of Philadelphia where I write, read a lot (boys' and girls' books mostly because they're the best), walk two or three miles a day, watch baseball games and, when the mood is on me, bake terrific cookies!