But new students Paul and Sheldon have a plan to wake the school up - and Don't Care High will never be the same. “'Don't Care High: It's more than a nickname - it's a concept.' At Don Carey High School, school spirit is so non-existent that nobody even noticed when a highway on-ramp got built over the football field. In a year and a half I should be caught up, depending on his current output. At my current pace of about a book a week. I picked up this to read next because of the title, I have been bouncing back and forth between his oldest and most recent books, for the stand alone, and randomly with the series. My son often reads these books to me or with me. With each one I read I am entertained and often challenged. My introduction to Korman’s works, that I have a record of was the 39 Clues back in 2009. And he has published 1 since then and another come out later in 2023. Yes you read that correctly, his hundredth book. I have stated in reviews of several of Korman’s books over the last year: almost a year ago, in the summer of 2022, Korman published his 100th book. I believe there have been 11 different editions and formats from a few different publishers. The print editions appear to all currently be out of print but there is an eBook edition available. It was the fourth stand alone story published by Korman and it was his 10th volume published. This story was originally published in 1985 by Scholastic Canada. (Sept.I absolutely love reading Gordon Korman books, either by myself or with one or more of my children. Korman's prose hits its mark: a hung-over bunch of football players becomes 'statuary in shoulder pads,' the noise at a party rises 'up to the point of pain' and the mournful hero is 'unmade, not by fire, but by cold, smooth indifference.' Unfortunately, a final chapter tacks on a happy ending and somewhat dulls the story's impact.

In the midst of the banality and posturing of one keg party after another, two mature characters emerge: narrator Rick Paradis, who seems to not fit in with the crowd from the beginning, and the remarkable Dipsy, who starts off as comic relief but turns out to be perhaps the wisest person in the book: he alone understands that high school is, after all, just a few years, and that there is much more of life to come.

Jake's weekly parties escalate in size and intensity, all part of his plan to get closer to Didi, whom he tutored in math several years before at a different school and has idealized ever since. The Jay Gatsby figure is nerd turned bon vivant Jake Garrett Daisy Buchanan has become Didi, the impossibly beautiful girl who is dating Todd Buckley (i.e., Tom Buchanan) despite his infidelities. With a cast of characters from Fitzgerald High. Dedicated to 'Jay and Daisy,' Korman's ( Maxx Comedy: The Funniest Kid in America

Don't Care High by Gordon Korman