Literary Devices in Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
Here's a shocker: a book called Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life takes place mainly in…a middle school. But this isn't just any middle school: it's Hills Village Middle School. Hills Vil...
Narrator Point of View
This book is a one-way trip into the feverishly artistic mind of one Rafe. We get his story straight from the source, which means we get a narrative that's 100%, unadulterated Rafe-ish goodness.In...
Genre
It doesn't get more Young Adult than Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life. Rafe's problems are the kind of things that have plagued young adults from the beginning of time (or at least since t...
Tone
We know what you're thinking—how can a book be both irreverent and thoughtful at the same time? Isn't that like being "uplifting" and "depressing"? If Rafe doesn't take things seriously, then how...
Writing Style
Pop quiz time. What do Rafe and Calvin and Hobbes' Calvin not have in common?Answer: One of them actually talks like a boy his age and one of them talks like a forty-year-old philosopher.Rafe talks...
What's Up With the Title?
Ever had a bad day? A bad week? How about a bad couple of years? Well, that's why Rafe's story is called Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life. It's pretty self-explanatory: Rafe's just started...
What's Up With the Ending?
Rafe ends his story on kind of a bittersweet note. Yes, he's being expelled…but he's going to work hard, attend summer school and maybe attend Airbrook Arts Community School as a seventh grader....
Tough-o-Meter
Rafe's story is being told by a middle school narrator and is aimed at a middle school audience, so it's pretty easy to understand…both language-wise and if you've even had to suffer the indignit...
Plot Analysis
Maximum Security Middle SchoolRafe's a twelve-year-old kid attending a little prison known as Hills Village Middle School. No matter how hard Rafe tries to stay out of trouble, it just manages to f...
Trivia
Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life will be the 11th film or TV movie based on a James Patterson book. Boo-yah. (Source) James Patterson started out as an advertising copywriter in 1971, but...
Steaminess Rating
Rafe's only twelve years old, so his book is pretty tame when it comes to the racy stuff. In fact the closest thing he gets to being even a little steamy is thinking about breaking "Section Four, R...
Allusions
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (15.2)Pablo Picasso (45.6)Rafael Sanzio of Urbino (73.11)Georgia O'Keeffe (73.11)Leonardo da Vinci (73.16)Mike Ditka (8.4)Lexus (23.12)Chicago Bears (43.2)Ra...