47 pages • 1-hour read
The Best School Year Ever
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Preface-Chapter 3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of bullying, animal cruelty, ableism, and child abuse.
Preface Summary: “The Herdmans…Back Again!”
Beth Bradley recalls Miss Kemp’s class assignment to write about figures from the “Old West” (1). Her Woodrow Wilson Elementary School classmate Boomer wanted to report on the James gang, but the school library did not have any resources. As an alternative, he wrote about another family of outlaws—the Herdmans. The Herdmans are a local family with six children who range in age from kindergarten through sixth grade. Beth notes that “Boomer’s paper was the best one, three whole pages of one crime after another,” but Miss Kemp scolded Boomer and made him redo the paper (2).
Chapter 1 Summary
On her first day of sixth grade, Beth recalls a time when her little brother, Charlie, told their mother that Leroy Herdman, who is in Charlie’s grade, said that on half days the teachers lock the school’s doors and order in pizza and beer. Beth’s mother replied that if they lock the doors, it is only to keep Leroy out. Beth says that the Herdmans are the worst children “in the history of the world” and explains that they do things like smoke cigars, set fires, and bully little kids (4). Imogene Herdman is in Beth’s class, and on the first day of school, Imogene grabs Beth and tries to get her to buy a box with a mouse in it as a purported science project. Beth refuses and reminds Imogene that their class project is not a science project this year.
Later, when Miss Kemp explains that the project will be about studying their classmates to come up with compliments for every member of the class, Beth thinks that even a science experiment involving mice would be preferable. She is especially disconcerted when Miss Kemp says that, in June, they will draw names and be responsible for coming up with extra compliments for the classmate whose name they draw. Alice Wendleken asks whether compliments about shiny hair and beautiful hair would count as just one compliment, and Beth surmises that Alice is thinking about herself, as usual. Miss Kemp says that the compliments should not be about physical appearance but about personality characteristics.
Beth thinks that this will be difficult because some members of her class are hard to think about outside of their physical characteristics. As an example, she cites Albert Pelfrey, whom she cannot think about as anything other than fat. Imogene asks what a compliment is, and Beth explains. Alice gives Imogene a look and tells her that “especially clean” is an example of a compliment (7). Beth thinks that a project about mice would be easier for Imogene, because the Herdmans have a lot of animals around. She describes their half-wild cat, whose propensity for biting people causes Mrs. Herdman to walk it on a chain. Gladys Herdman, another of the children, also bites people, but nothing ever seems to be done about it. Mrs. Herdman is a single mother and works double shifts at a shoe factory. The Herdman children are mostly unsupervised, and they spend their time stealing candy and other small items.
Once, they even stole Louella McCluskey’s baby brother, Howard. Louella was supposed to be babysitting, and she left Howard in his stroller outside of a store so that she and Beth could go inside and buy candy. The Herdmans drew on Howard’s bald head and charged kids a quarter to see what they claimed was a tattooed baby. When Beth and Louella got Howard back, they tried to clean his head using scouring powder. Beth’s mother found out and punished Beth, which she thought was unfair, because no one punished the Herdmans.
Chapter 2 Summary
Beth explains that the Herdman children are banned from the town hall because of a prank they pulled. They put tiny frogs in the drinking fountain, and the town clerk accidentally drank a few frogs. The children are also banned from most of the other stores and municipal buildings in town, leaving them with few opportunities to use the bathroom, call their mother, or get a drink of water when they are not at home. They got banned from the post office and the gas station in one day. Someone put up their pictures in a display of wanted criminals at the post office as a joke, and Ollie Herdman asked whether he could turn in his brother Claude for a reward. The postmaster told the police to look for Claude, and they discovered Claude stuck in the gas station bathroom; because Ollie had absconded with the key, customers were unable to use the restroom and went elsewhere for gas. The fire department eventually had to break down the bathroom door.
The Herdmans got banned from the laundromat because they shut their cat in a washing machine and then went to find some quarters. Their intention was not to harm the cat but to get it clean. While they were gone, the laundromat manager heard the cat hissing and scratching inside the machine and thought the machine had an electrical problem. When he opened the machine to look, the cat shot out and caused mayhem inside the laundromat. As customers fled into the street, coughing from spilled laundry powder, an onlooker misunderstood the commotion and called the fire department, thinking there was a gas leak. The cat ran out, covered in a tablecloth, and headed into the barbershop, where it ran up a chair just as the barber moved to lather up a customer for a shave. The cat got covered in shaving cream. Then, the cat ran into the movie theater, where it got popcorn stuck all over the shaving cream. Finally, it climbed a tree near the library. The librarian called the fire department to get it down, but they refused after having already been called to the laundromat on a false alarm because of the same cat. Eventually, it got down and went home, and the Herdmans were pleased to see that the shaving foam had made the cat “clean and fluffy […] [which was] what they wanted in the first place” (26).
Chapter 3 Summary
Beth says that her own mother dislikes the Herdman children, but she proclaims herself too busy to make a fuss about them. Beth’s mother leaves the complaining to Mrs. Wendleken, “who [is] so good at it” (27). Beth says that Mrs. Wendleken complains about the Herdman children almost as much as she brags about Alice being wonderful. Mrs. Wendleken is constantly volunteering Alice to star in plays, pose for pictures, and represent municipal campaigns. Alice is very proud of her various star turns.
During Beth’s sixth-grade year, a snake bites Leroy Herdman. The snake dies, and Leroy brings it to school and ties it to the light string in a supply closet. A teacher and several kindergartners are badly frightened, and various chalks and red paints end up smeared all around the scene, causing the janitor to worry that there has been a terrible, bloody accident. During the commotion, Leroy retrieves his snake. Two days later, he wedges it into a pencil sharpener by its tail, causing another commotion. This time, the snake is thrown away. Beth’s mother tells her friend, Miss Philips, who is the Herdmans’ assigned social worker, that someone should check on Leroy’s snake bite to be sure he does not need medical attention. Miss Philips declines to do so, saying that she drives by the Herdmans’ messy house once a month and feels that this is enough checking. In any case, she declares, “all her sympathies [are] with the snake” (31).
Like the laundromat incident, the incident with the snake is the subject of a newspaper story. Beth recounts the headlines and explains the fuss at school that follows the snake episode. Leroy himself is not there to witness this, however—according to a hastily scribbled note that Imogene brings to school with her, Leroy is “absent at a funeral” (33). Mrs. Wendleken is angry that the newspaper story does not specifically blame Leroy for the snake at school, and as evidence that he is the culprit, she points to the supposed funeral, asking why he would have a funeral for a snake that is not his. She complains to Beth’s mother, who recounts the conversation to Miss Philips. Miss Philips goes to the school and suggests that giving Leroy the Good School Citizen of the Month award for taking the time to bury the snake might encourage him to exhibit more prosocial behavior in the future. Alice is outraged because she feels entitled to win the award nearly every month. Beth’s little brother, Charlie, points out that even the flimsy excuse for giving Leroy the award is wrong, because he could not have buried the snake—the janitor threw it away. When Charlie explains the situation to Leroy himself, Leroy buries Charlie up to his neck in the same trash masher where the snake was thrown away.
Preface-Chapter 3 Analysis
In the first section of the story, Beth Bradley is introduced as a narrator, and she explains the novel’s central conflict—she has been assigned to come up with compliments for her classmates, but unfortunately her class includes Imogene Herdman, whom Beth believes to be essentially un-complimentable. Beth, like most people in her community, believes in the importance of social order, and she sees Imogene and her siblings only as agents of chaos. Because her explanation of the story’s central conflict involves establishing why she finds Imogene so problematic, much of the first section of the story is taken up with comic stories about the chaos the Herdman children create. This narrative structure tends to efface Beth’s own personality, as she is not as involved in the text’s narrative action as are most narrators and protagonists.
Beth can be understood somewhat through her narrative voice, however. She establishes that she values order and conformity and that she believes children should be clean, honest, industrious, cheerful, and cooperative. Because Beth relates so few of her own actions, it is impossible to say whether she herself lives up to these values, but she does make it clear that the Herdmans’ failure to embody these values makes them “the worst kids in the history of the world” (4). Beth’s perspective is clearly shaped by the culture of her community. The Herdman children violate local norms for children, and the community reacts by ostracizing them and gossiping about them, making it clear that they are constantly in the wrong. Beth’s mother and father, Mrs. Wendleken, and even Miss Philips—the Herdman children’s own social welfare worker—are openly scornful of the Herdman children.
The narrative perspective uses Beth’s naivety as a child narrator to point toward The Dangers of Valuing Order Above Compassion. Beth does not condemn the mean-spirited gestures of writing about the Herdmans as criminals for a class assignment, putting their pictures in a “Wanted” display at the post office, and spreading critical gossip about them as inappropriate ways for people to treat children. Instead, Beth presents these choices matter-of-factly as natural and proportionate responses to the Herdman children’s hijinks. Meanwhile, details in the text make clear that the Herdman children’s misbehavior is motivated by unmet needs. They swindle their fellow students to get money for food, and their most malicious schemes are intended to humiliate those who have humiliated them. The whole town cooperates in the othering and exclusion of these children, and in so doing, they only make the problem of the children’s behavior worse.
Beth’s narrative voice is often amusing and sometimes biting. For example, the first introduction of Alice Wendleken’s character is through Alice’s self-absorbed question regarding compliments about a person’s hair, and Beth’s tone is sardonic: “This sounded to me like Alice intended to compliment herself, which would save someone else the trouble,” she quips (7). Just a page later, when telling a story about the Herdmans’ cat, she recounts something Alice said, referring to her as “my friend Alice” (8). Alice emerges as the story’s chief antagonist, and Beth’s willingness to call her a friend despite clearly disliking her is evidence of the character development Beth still has ahead of her. Alice is continually praised by the adults around her for her impeccable manners, excellent grades, and well-groomed appearance—all qualities that mark her as an embodiment of order. Though Beth finds Alice’s self-regarding perfectionism annoying, she craves the approval and social status that Alice enjoys.
Beth believes both in being an honest narrator and in her own right to judge others’ failings. She is a sharply funny, blunt, and critical narrator. Beth’s Chapter 3 recounting of her mother’s criticisms of both the Herdmans and Mrs. Wendleken hint that this quality, too, is learned from those around her. Beth’s mother says that, although she dislikes the Herdman children, she herself is too busy to worry much about them and will leave the complaining to Mrs. Wendleken “who [is] so good at it” (27). This implies that Mrs. Wendleken is not busy and productive, but instead wastes her time in petty criticism of others—ironically, this is exactly what Beth and her mother are engaged in, albeit in a more subtle and witty form.
Most of the first few chapters are devoted to anecdotes about the Herdman children’s antics over the years Beth has known them. While Beth sees these stories simply as evidence of the Herdman children’s badness, they clearly point to The Need for Communal Support Systems for Families. Mrs. Herdman is a single mother, as the children’s father has deserted the family. In order to provide for her six children, Mrs. Herdman works double shifts in a factory each day. This leaves her little time to maintain her home or interact with her children. Imogene’s Chapter 1 question about what a compliment is demonstrates how little education she has received and hints at the emotional bleakness of her home life—either she does not know basic vocabulary, she has seldom received a compliment, or both. When Alice then looks at Imogene pointedly after giving “clean” as an example of a compliment, her implication is that Imogene is dirty (7). The children’s neglect and lack of supervision represents a societal failing. The Herdman children’s mother is just one of the many parents who struggle to access affordable childcare and other resources needed to make the simultaneous demands of parenting and providing for children sustainable. Her society demands that she be in two places at once, and when this proves impossible, her children pay the price.
Beth’s narrative tone toward the Herdmans is not compassionate or concerned, however, but censorious in a lighthearted, amused way. Beth depicts them engaged in absurd, petty mayhem: filling a drinking fountain with tiny frogs, temporarily stealing Luanne’s baby brother, unintentionally blocking access to a gas station restroom, and so on. Their mischief is inconvenient and annoying, but it does not cause any lasting harm to others. The Herdmans are presented as a comical obstacle for Beth and her community to deal with, but as the novel continues, Beth comes to realize The Importance of Seeing Beyond the Surface, as she sees the hidden goodness in Imogene Herdman and recognizes the harm that the community’s neglect is causing the Herdman children.
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