Wayside School



Kids' book series by Louis Sachar (Holes) about the weirdest grade school ever. Seriously. It makes Hogwarts look like nothin'.

For one thing, it's a skyscraper, with a classroom on each of its 30 stories. It was supposed to be one story, with thirty classrooms all in a row, but the plans were accidentally held sideways (the builder said he was very sorry). He also forgot to build the nineteenth story; the building has an eighteenth story and a twentieth story, but no nineteenth story.

The books themselves always have 30 stories, or loosely-connected chapters. Mrs. Jewls teaches the class on the thirtieth story. Miss Zarves teaches the class on the nineteenth story. There is no nineteenth story. There is no Miss Zarves.

Do you understand? Good. Now explain it to me.

The "nineteenth story" thing gets played with a bit: In the first book, Chapter 19 simply says "There is no nineteenth story. Sorry." The second book has three successive chapters labeled Chapter 19, with the subsequent story being "Chapters 20, 21, and 22".

The story focuses on Mrs. Jewls' class, each of the children in which has his or her own quirks and bizarrities. The students had an evil teacher named Mrs. Gorf who turned them into apples with magic spells. The principal's name is Mr. Kidswatter. Then there's the group of Men in Black living in the basement. And the time the building got filled with cows.

There are three books in the main series. The first, Sideways Stories from Wayside School, introduced the characters and devoted a chapter to a story revolving around each one. The second, Wayside School Is Falling Down, introduced a new student to the mix but otherwise followed the same structure. The third, Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, largely abandoned the formula to present what was more or less a continuous story: Mrs. Jewls goes on maternity leave and the students must cope with a variety of substitutes in her absence.

There were also two Sideways Arithmetic books, which involve mathematical Moon Logic Puzzles, including letter-substitution arithmetic. Mrs. Jewls' word math is even mentioned in the main series.

The series manages to show an accurate understanding of the average schoolchild's perspective: the world is a huge, strange place where arbitrary things happen.

In 2007, the books were picked up by Teletoon and made into an Animated Series, which has its own page here.

"Sideways Stories: Everybody booed. Falling Down: Everybody mooed. A Little Stranger: Everybody oohed."
 * Aesop Amnesia: In Sideways Stories from Wayside School, Joy steals Dameon's lunch because she forgot hers and his looked delicious. She felt so guilty afterwards that she couldn't eat those foods again for a year. In Wayside School is Falling Down, she steals her best friend Maurecia's lunch for no apparent reason.
 * Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Leslie decides her toes are useless and offers to sell them to Louis. He looks at them and decides he isn't interested. He then offers to buy her pigtails instead, much to her alarm. "Cut my hair? Are you crazy?"
 * Artistic License Physics: In Sideways Stories, Sharie falls out the window while sleeping. Never mind that Louis is able to run all the way across the length of the playground and pass through the various swing-sets, monkey-bars and ball-courts to catch her before she hits the ground - if you fall from any decent height, you're going to die from the impact, or at least suffer broken bones, whether or not you're actually caught.
 * Perhaps physics saw what was going on at the school, and decided that it didn't want to get involved.
 * Audience Surrogate: The math books introduce a new student, Sue, whose confusion over Mrs. Jewls' approach to learning is intended to mirror that of "normal" people. She doesn't cross over into the main books, likely because she is never given any quirks of her own to set her apart from the other students.
 * Asleep in Class: Sharie is always asleep in class. Mrs. Jewls doesn't mind—she believes Sharie learns better that way.
 * Author Avatar: Louis, which is also the author's name. It's actually stated in the last chapter of the first book.
 * Bait and Switch
 * Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: All of the substitute teachers in Gets A Little Stranger, especially Wendy Nogard.
 * Book Ends: Louis explains at the beginning of Sideways Arithmetic From Wayside School that he wrote the book because he wanted to show the readers who wished they could go to Wayside School to "eat ice cream, draw pictures, and watch movies about turtles" that Mrs. Jewls asks tougher questions than they probably expected her to. In the last chapter, Joy invites Sue to come to her house after school, so they can eat ice cream, draw pictures, and watch movies about turtles.
 * Break the Cutie: While Miss Nogard tries this with the entire class via her telepathy, the most noticable example is where she spends an entire chapter doing it to Maurecia.
 * Brick Joke: In "A Story With a Disappointing Ending", Paul gets hypnotized into thinking Leslie's ears turn into candy whenever she says the word pencil. Unfortunately, despite the story revolving around her breaking and then losing her pencil, she never says the word "pencil" during that chapter. Several chapters later, the students throw a pencil sharpener out of the window and it breaks.
 * At one point, Bebe Gunn claims to have a brother named Ray, which her parents say she made up. It's later revealed that.
 * The pencil sharpener incident also involves throwing down Mr. Kidswatter's coffee pot (they're testing Gallileo's theory of objects with different masses falling at the same rate). Several chapters later, he asks on the intercom if anyone's seen it.
 * What is the first thing Mrs. Jewls does upon finding out Mark Miller's name is actually Benjamin Nushmutt? She hands him the lunch that's apparently been sitting on her desk since his first day of school.
 * At the beginning of the third book, it's revealed that Louis has gotten all the cows out of the building, but still sometimes hears a "moo" coming from somewhere inside the school. In the nineteenth chapter, it's revealed that there's a cow in Miss Zarves' room.
 * A LOT of Brick Jokes.
 * Brilliant but Lazy: Joy shows signs of this at times.
 * Butt Monkey: Louis. He's like a slave for these obnoxious, crazy children every day and has gotten physically hurt by two. And, of course, he had to
 * Todd qualifies as well. He's sent home early every day due to Mrs. Jewls' Selective Enforcement of her rules. Even when Wayside closes for a year and the children are all sent to other schools, he's said to have been sent to the very worst one. He was sent to your school.
 * Call Back: Many, often numerous chapters later. For example, lost shoes always being found in refrigerators is brought up early on, and then several chapters later a student loses a shoe, which is found in the fridge of the teacher's lounge.
 * Cassandra Truth: In Falling Down, Benjamin finally works up the courage to tell the class his real name. However, it just so happens that the class has a substitute that day, and they think Benjamin is trying to mess with her, so they all gleefully start claiming that their names are Benjamin also.
 * Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Todd, pretty much ever.
 * This phenomenon is subverted in the last book when Todd comes in late but Mrs. Jewls doesn't punish him since she is glad to see he is okay. But then it's double subverted when Todd gets in trouble for saying the word "door" despite the fact he wasn't there when Principal Kidswatter banned the word.
 * The Chew Toy: Jason, who has suffered through events such as being stuck to his chair, having his mouth taped shut, swallowing his goldfish, having a Depraved Dentist and being shown up by his older brother.
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Just about everyone, but three in particular stand out:
 * Sharie, who is next to never seen awake because she learns better that way, and when she is awake, she is doing things like bringing a hobo for show-and-tell.
 * Joe, who can't count but can always get the correct answer to counting problems in Sideways Stories. His strange mathematical methods also show up in later books.
 * Stephen, who not only dresses (in-universe) oddly, but believes that the more a necktie chokes him, the more important he looks. Oh, and he has green hair.
 * Comically Missing the Point:
 * Mr. Kidswatter interrupts a music class in Mrs. Jewls' room by saying the teachers have started complaining about the kids' noisy session, because they can't hear. After he leaves,.
 * When Todd brings in his baby brother on pet day, Mrs. Jewls says a human is not a pet. Todd simply replies that his brother doesn't bite.
 * Continuity Nod:
 * In Sideways Stories, Myron saves the life of Dana's dog, Pugsy. Thus, when the class bring their pets to class in the "Pet Day" chapter of Gets a Little Stranger, Dana's pet is left out of the Who's on First? gimmick employed throughout the chapter since her pet had already been acknowledged in the previous book.
 * One of the problems in More Sideways Stories From Wayside School gets deemed the hardest question in the whole book before Mrs. Jewls asks it. However, it gets skipped over after the students trick Mrs. Jewls into cancelling the pop quiz containing the problem. The number of the question treated like this? Nineteen.
 * Cool School: The titular school is basically a thirty-story building, that was built sideways thanks to the apologetic builder. Also, there's "no" Nineteenth Floor, and to top it all off, the students, teachers, and school board are just as weird.
 * Darker and Edgier: Gets a Little Stranger is noticeably darker than the rest of the series.
 * Depraved Dentist: Jane Payne, nee Smith. She even pulls out teeth that don't need to be pulled out, because then her patients pay more.
 * Double Meaning Title: Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, true to its name, is definitely the weirdest of the three books, but the title also refers to.
 * Down the Rabbit Hole: Allison when.
 * Ear Worm: In-Universe: On Miss Nogard's first day at Wayside, D.J. has a song he hates stuck in his head. So Miss Nogard hums said song whenever she is near D.J.
 * Eldritch Location The Nineteenth Floor.
 * Eureka Moment: For one brief, shining second, everything — why Benjamin Nushmutt and Mark Miller got confused, who had their lunch, socks, and why Mark has dismembered body parts in a bag — makes perfect and logical sense to Allison...and then she forgets before she can explain.
 * Every Episode Ending: The last sentence of the last chapter of each book (except for Sideways Arithmetic and More Sideways Arithmetic) follows a similar format:

""I know where you should put it," said Dana. "But I can't say it." She giggled like a maniac. Then she whispered it into Jenny's ear. Jenny giggled too."
 * Everything's Better with Monkeys: Zig-zagged: When Mrs. Jewls started teaching at Wayside, she thought all the children looked too cute to be human. This caused her to mistake them for monkeys. However, she admittedly doesn't think it seems enjoyable to teach a classroom full of monkeys.
 * Evil Teacher: Mrs. Gorf.
 * Later, Miss Nogard.
 * Miss Drazil (who's not from Brazil) appears nice and caring, even making them cookies and this a subversion. It turns into a Double Subversion when . If it wasn't an and-puck or an or-puck, it would be a butt-puck.
 * Even Mrs. Jewls herself gets this in one story, which is introduced by saying that inside every nice teacher is a mean teacher waiting to come out. The nice teacher resurfaces in the end, and punishes herself for her temporary lapse in the same way that she punishes disobedient students — by sending herself home early on the kindergarten bus.
 * Though not strictly a teacher, the principal Mr. Kidswatter qualifies otherwise. He hates his job and the students. Heck, his name is Kidswatter!
 * Mrs. Zarves, who is briefly implied to be
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Mrs. Jewls asks Dameon to ask Louis if he would like to join them for a screening of a movie called, Turtles. After Dameon does this, Louis tells him to ask Mrs. Jewls what the movie's about. She answers, "Turtles." Ultimately, Louis decides not to watch the movie, because "Turtles are too slow."
 * Expository Hairstyle Change:
 * Fashion Hurts: Stephen insists that uncomfortable shoes and a choking tie are necessary to look good for picture day.
 * Funny Foreigner: Dance teacher Mrs. Waloosh, who pronounces her w's like v's, and whose dan-er, tango lessons sometimes include throwing children up into the air.
 * Gender Blender Name: Nancy and Mac
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: In Wayside School is Falling down, Calvin's classmates gives suggestions for where he should put the tattoo he's getting.

"Dana gasped. "I know where!" she exclaimed. She and Jenny giggled."
 * Later Calvin comes back with a tattoo but nobody can see it.

""A naked lady!""
 * Another example:

"1. Statement 2 is true. 2. Statement 1 is false."
 * Gilligan Cut: Invoked. As part of a punishment, Mrs. Jewls gives Joy a two-question true-false exam. Joy proclaims that she could solve it "in two seconds." The exam reads:

- Naration: While Joy continues to work on that...

""What button? I don't see a red button, there IS no red button! Oh here it""
 * Heavy Sleeper: Sharie. Not only is she hardly ever seen awake, but she sleeps in a winter coat with hood, regardless of season. She's also able to stay asleep while falling thirty stories out of a window.
 * Hot Teacher: Mrs. Jewls, according to Damion.
 * Hypno Fool: Psychiatrist/School counselor Dr. Pickle loves to play pranks on his customers. For example, he hypnotized a woman to quit smoking, but added the suggestion that she slap her husband whenever he said "potato". Later there's a Brick Joke where one of his pranks bears fruit after the reader has stopped looking for it.
 * Ironic Nickname: The three Erics each have one. "Fatso" is the skinniest, "Butterfingers" the most athletic, and "Crabapple" the sweetest-tempered, because the other two have those qualities and the students assume they do too.
 * Ironic Nursery Rhyme: The titular poem of Wayside School is Falling Down describes a scenario in which the school falls down and all the kids hit the ground and die. Kathy likes reciting this because if she and the other students died, they wouldn't have to go to school anymore.
 * Is This Thing Still On?: Kidswatter repeatedly forgets to turn off the microphone. In Gets a Little Stranger he goes onto the morning announcements and sounds cheerful, then once the announcements are done goes into a loud rant about how he hated coming back there to look after a bunch of stupid kids.

"Allison: What if you have to go to the bathroom? Virginia: What's a bathroom?"
 * I Taste Delicious: Averted, or perhaps inverted, in an early story where Mrs. Jewls brings the students ice cream that tastes like themselves. Everyone remarks how delicious their classmates taste, but when a student tries his or her own flavor, they taste nothing at all.
 * Which makes sense in a nonsensical, childlike way — it's the taste you taste when you're not tasting anything.
 * Kathy-flavored ice cream is an exception — everybody says that it tastes like old bologna.
 * Incredibly Lame Pun: The ballroom is both the room where the playground balls are stored as well as the room where the children learn ballroom dancing.
 * It Makes Sense in Context: Occasionally, but more often than not, it doesn't make sense even in context.
 * Jerkass: Kathy, full stop. Joy to a lesser extent.
 * Jerk Jock: Terrence, who is thusly described as "a good athlete, but a bad sport."
 * Eric Fry and Eric Bacon are described as being mean in the first book; Bacon because everyone calls him "Fatso" (due to their belief that all Erics are fat, since the other two Erics are fat), and Fry because he always has to play left field when the kids play baseball. As a further result, everyone thinks Eric Ovens is a Jerkass as well (earning him the unflattering nickname "Crabapple") but in reality he's quite nice and polite.
 * But the biggest one of all is Sammy,
 * Karma Houdini: Miss Nogard is never punished for the way she used her mind reading powers to make her students miserable and turn them against each other all while making herself look like a nice teacher in the process. In fact, nobody even finds out that she did it.
 * Karmic Jackpot: Maurecia once found a bag containing a large amount of money on the playground. Instead of spending the cash herself, she submitted it to the lost and found. Eventually, the person who lost the money comes to reclaim it.
 * Joy subsequently points out that Maurecia wouldn't have found any bags in the bushes if not for her stealing Maruecia's lunch. As a result, the man gives her.
 * Larynx Dissonance:
 * Least Rhymable Word: Allison has to write a poem using the word "purple" for one assignment. After going through the alphabet multiple times, she decides to rhyme it with "burp'll," as in, "I bet a burp'll stop that baby from crying."
 * Lethal Chef: Miss Mush, the school lunch lady, who at one point picks up a severed nose and decides it would go well with spaghetti sauce.
 * However, the math book stated that she's a Supreme Chef... provided she cooks for a small number of people. The larger the number, the worse it is.
 * Granted, it's not the food itself that's bad (Ron is able to eat it and says it's not bad) but it does cause some very weird effects.
 * Literary Agent Hypothesis: Louis is stated to be the author and narrator of the books, yet is always referred to in the third person. In the first chapter, he explains that the stories you're about to read have been called strange and silly, but that's okay — when he told stories about your school to the kids at Wayside, they thought you were strange and silly, too.
 * Real Life Writes the Plot: Louis Sachar revealed in some interviews that he really did work as a yard teacher before becoming an author, and that he named Mrs. Jewls' students after some kids who attended that school.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: 30 students, plus various recurring teachers and staff.
 * Logic Bomb: In the second-to-last chapter of Sideways Arithmetic, Mrs. Jewls overhears Joy mock Myron and Stephen for doing more poorly than she did on some True/False quizzes. In response, Mrs. Jewls gives Myron and Stephen some insanely easy quizzes to rebuild their confidence, and punishes Joy with a quiz that proves impossible to answer. ("1. Statement 2 is true. 2. Statement 1 is false.")
 * Louis Cypher: It's implied that Mrs. Zarves may be this.
 * Love Makes You Crazy: Jason's crush on Allison, which likely has a hand in his aforementioned Chew Toy status.
 * Love Makes You Evil: Well, the lack thereof; see Wendy in Wayside School Gets A Little Stranger.
 * Meaningful Name: "Wayside" is basically a backwards way of saying "sideways"; both the school itself and everything that goes on in it are backward or sideways in some way.
 * Meganekko: Dana, who is said to be even more pretty with her glasses on.
 * The Men in Black: The Men with the Attache Case.
 * Mind Hug
 * Mind Screw: To cite one example, in Sideways Stories, Calvin is told to take a note to the non-existent Miss Zarves. Additionally, Mrs. Jewls forgets to give him the note. Calvin isn't sure what to do, so he asks Louis' advice. Louis tells him that "you're not supposed to give no notes to no teachers". Calvin goes back to the classroom without doing a thing. Mrs. Jewls thanks him for carrying out her errand.
 * Hell, the entire (non)existence of Miss Zarves and her class is one of these. The 19th floor room seems to be the habitat of people who are forgotten, made-up, or are alternate versions of real people.
 * Also, the story where everyone brings their pets into class, at least until the Mind Screwdriver at the end.
 * All the books have at least one of these for certain. There's even one chapter simply called "What?"
 * Mirrors Reflect Everything: Jenny uses a mirror to make Mrs. Gorf turn herself into an apple.
 * Missing Floor: The nineteenth.
 * Mondegreen: In-universe example: "STAR BRINGING PURPLE?" No,
 * Moon Logic Puzzle: The math books.
 * Mundane Fantastic
 * My Name Is Not Durwood: Benjamin Nushmutt, whom everyone calls Mark Miller for some reason, and he isn't assertive enough to correct them.
 * To be fair, he WAS going to correct them on his first day, but Louis came in with Benjamin's lunch, and he backed out as he believed everyone would think he made it up just to get a free lunch. It's been sitting there from early in the book until the second-to-last chapter.
 * Meanwhile, Mark Miller is in Miss Zarves' class going by the name Benjamin Nushmutt
 * Nausea Fuel: Invoked in a chapter titled, "Mush". Ron has some of Miss Mush's mushroom surprise for lunch, and gets compelled to.
 * The chapter begins with a warning that the reader probably shouldn't read the rest of it after eating, or before eating, or if the reader planned to eat something ever again.
 * Never Live It Down: In-Universe. Eric Fry was a nearly-flawless athlete, but became saddled with the nickname "Butterfingers" because of one play he failed to make in a baseball game.
 * For bonus points, the ball was hit to left field, he was in right field, and he almost made it.
 * Also, "Why The Class Must Get Rid Of Mrs. Drazil" starts out with a long list of Mrs. Drazil's admirable qualities (eg, her great cooking skills, her patience with struggling students), before finally noting that the children will never forgive her for
 * New Transfer Student: Benjamin Nushmutt in Falling Down. Only everyone thinks his name is Mark Miller.
 * Nightmare Retardant: In-universe example.
 * Nobody Poops: This applies to the students on the 19th story, which Allison finds out when she ends up there.
 * Nobody Poops: This applies to the students on the 19th story, which Allison finds out when she ends up there.

"Allison: This isn't heaven! Mark: That's not what I was going to say."
 * Not Even Human: Sammy, once he's stripped of every raincoat.
 * Not-So-Imaginary Friend: Ray Gun, maybe. Said to be imaginary in Bebe's chapter, but he's a student of Ms. Zarve's class.
 * Odd Friendship: Joy, a dishonest theif and Karma Houdini who is usually responsible for Todd getting sent home early every day, and Maurecia, a forthright girl so sweet she is everyone's favorite ice cream flavor, are best friends.
 * One-Paragraph Chapter: Sideways Stories has one. "There is no Miss Zarves. There is no nineteenth story. Sorry."
 * One Steve Limit: The three Erics' premise plays around with this.
 * Only Sane Man: Allison, to an extent. She's at least the only one to realize some of the weirder implications of the stories' universe, such as the fact that if there is no nineteenth floor, then their classroom is really only on the twenty-ninth floor. Of course, given the Mind Screw nature of the universe, the moment she realizes this, everyone in Mrs. Jewls' class forgets about her and she ends up in Ms. Zarve's class.
 * Sue in the Sideways Arithmetic books.
 * Overly Long Gag: Mrs. Jewls struggling to remember the password needed to fix her home computer.
 * Painting the Medium: Speakers who are upside-down for whatever reason often have their dialogue printed upside-down.
 * Chapter 17 of Wayside School Is Falling Down is about Jenny reading a story backwards so she could be surprised by the beginning (she only liked stories with surprise endings and already knew how this one ended). The entire chapter is backwards.
 * The audiobook takes this a step further - after reading the story the way it's written in the book, the narrator says this doesn't sound right and reads it backwards, including reading the chapter title at the very end.
 * Oh, and lets not forget
 * Perfectly Cromulent Word: Mr. Kidswatter once spilled his coffee by accidentally bumping into a closed door, and got so mad, he announced that no one in Wayside School can ever use the word, "door", again. He tells them to use the word "goozack" instead.
 * "Mr. Kidswatter is a Mugworm Griblick."
 * Perpetual Smiler: D.J.
 * Pie in the Face: Miss Mush has to do this to
 * Planet Eris: Especially in the third book, appropriately titled Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger, which had, among other things, a substitute teacher with an ear on top of her head that allowed her to "hear" people's thoughts.
 * Punny Name: Bebe Gunn and her imaginary little brother, Ray Gunn.
 * Reasonable Authority Figure: Louis.
 * Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Judging by the names of the substitute teachers in Gets a Little Stranger...
 * Running Gag: Todd getting sent home on the Kindergarten bus every day. Paul loving to pull Leslie's Pigtails.
 * All three books mention potatoes at least once.
 * Sadist Teacher: Mrs. Gorf. Wendy Nogard also counts.
 * Sdrawkcab Name: "Gorf", "Drazil", "Nogard".
 * Falling Down has an entire backwards chapter, where you have to start at the end for it to make any sense. Appropriately, the chapter is titled "What?" The whole concept is used to its maximum comic potential; read forwards, Jenny seems to take off her motorcycle helmet before saying she was going to do so before Mrs. Jewls told her to do so - which leads to apparent Department of Redundancy Department in some cases. Read forwards, however, it becomes a normal story.
 * Selective Enforcement: Todd. Every day.
 * Shaggy Dog Story: "A Package For Mrs. Jewls", the first chapter of Wayside School is Falling Down, has Louis carry a heavy computer from the first floor to Mrs. Jewls' floor. When he reaches her door, he has to hold up the computer for several more minutes, while the kids decide who should open the door. After Louis finally brings the package inside the room, Mrs. Jewls unpacks the computer, and proclaims that it will help her students learn new things more quickly.
 * Sleep Learning: Sharie. At least, that's what Mrs. Jewls believes.
 * Something Only They Would Say: "Rub a monkey's tummy! Rub a monkey's tummy with your head!"
 * Something They Would Never Say: Miss Mush recognizes that something is wrong when she hears Jerkass Kathy saying, "Have a nice day!"
 * Spoof Aesop: "It's on the inside that matters". One of the students wears an expensive suit to be important, however Mrs. Jewls tells him the standard line, only to add "that's why you have to wear expensive underwear".
 * Stealth Pun: In the third book, we're introduced to Jason's dentist, Dr. Payne. Later, we're introduced to her husband, Sham. Which means her husband's full name is...
 * Strange Minds Think Alike: Mrs. Jewls' students all seem to intuitively understand her strange approach to math, while outsiders are utterly baffled by it.
 * Strange Secret Entrance: The school is thirty stories tall, but of those thirty, they forgot to build the nineteenth. It does not exist, and its resident teacher Miss Zarves and her entire class are entirely imaginary. Nonetheless, a student ends up there by accident in one story.
 * Hell, somehow, a cow ended up there. Which only adds to the cluster-WTF that is the Nineteenth Floor.
 * Tastes Like Diabetes: Invoked in the Chapter "Love and a Dead Rat" where a conversation between Mrs. Jewls and Dameon is so sappy the titular dead rat says "This is getting disgusting!" and walks out of the room.
 * Teacher-Student Romance: Dameon is known for being in love with Mrs. Jewls, something that concerns him at the same time since she is married. But after he confesses, Mrs. Jewls assures him that if she gives her love to someone, she will have more than she started with.
 * It is also implied that Deedee has feelings for Louis the yard teacher.
 * The Last of These Is Not Like the Others: The three Erics each have one thing in common with two of the other Erics which the last does not. So no matter which order you list them in, this trope simultaneously applies to all three of them: Eric Bacon's the one that isn't fat, Fry is the one that's actually a good athlete, and Ovens is the one that isn't a Jerkass all the time.
 * Double Subverted in that the other kids assume that all three Erics are fat, poor athletes, and generally jerks - even though the narrator explicitly points out otherwise.
 * Theme Naming: The three Erics' last names are Bacon, Ovens, and Fry.
 * This Isn't Heaven: When Allison gets stuck doing busy work for a week on the 19th story, her classmate Mark Miller thinks they've died and gone to--


 * This Loser Is You: When Wayside School closed and the students sent to other schools, Todd was sent to the worst of all. The narrator begins to describe what he had to do every morning, but then stops himself. You already know what Todd had to do, because Todd was sent to your school.
 * Title Drop: "Wayside School is falling down" becomes part of a song the children sing, as well as the last chapter of the second book.
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Maurecia loves ice cream.
 * Tribute to Fido: Sideways Stories From Wayside School has an in-universe example: a boy named Nancy, who dislikes his name, trades names with a girl named Mac, who disliked hers because she had been named after a dog.
 * The Unfavorite: Bebe claims she is this in her family to her younger brother, who, with his presence on the nineteenth story, may or may not have existed.
 * Unhappy Medium: Before she started using her mind reading power to make everyone as miserable as she could, Wendy Nogard found most people's thoughts to be "boring."
 * Un Installment: Chapter 19 in the first book.
 * Unusual Chapter Numbers: The second book has three Chapter 19s. The following chapter is "Chapters 20, 21, and 22" to make up for it.
 * Which, in a strange way, makes perfect sense, as each chapter usually focuses on one kid. Chapters 20, 21, and 22 all focus on one kid each, but it's all the same story.
 * Viewers Are Geniuses: Much of the humor requires at least two or three reads to fully grasp.
 * Wacky Homeroom
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: Sue is a student in the Sideways Arithmetic books. She is never seen or even mentioned in the main trilogy.
 * Jason and Stephen are said to be best friends in the first book but they have no noticeable interaction after that.
 * Who's on First?: Pet day for this school is pretty much like this. Except even bigger.
 * Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Mrs. Jewls is Properly Paranoid of dead rats. (Don't underestimate them just because they're dead!)
 * Yes, Virginia: Kathy proclaimed in a Christmas-themed chapter that she doesn't believe in Santa Claus. Mrs. Jewls and Louis don't support her claim, and tell the kids that they can help Santa by doing things like acting nice and singing happy songs. When the chapter ends,.
 * You Gotta Have Green Hair: Stephen.
 * You Helped Kill My Mother: Inverted.