My Thoughts on Dr. Snow Has Got to Go!

 


Over the past few months my 8 year old sister has been reading a ton of “My Weird-est School” books by Dan Gutman. She has been very captivated by them and whenever she read some of it aloud it always had something weird in it. Over break, I went to the library and was browsing some books in the graphic novel section because I wanted a light read and stumbled upon the  “My Weird-est School” books and decided to read one and see what it was like and why my sister likes it so much.

Quick Summary (so this all makes sense)

Dr. Snow Has Got to Go! is about a scientist named Dr. Snow who comes to Ella Mentry School to help the kids with their science fair projects. At first, everyone thinks he’s just a really enthusiastic science guy… but then he starts showing signs that make the kids think that he is evil/mad/crazy and is going to take over the world. 

A.J., Andrea, and their friends eventually realize that Dr. Snow is indeed crazy and wants to take over the world. So they team up to figure out how to stop him. Long story short: chaos happens, science experiments go wrong, and the kids do everything they can to get Dr. Snow out of the building — because, well… Dr. Snow has GOT to go.

Here are some things I took note of that stood out to me when reading this book: 

Pg 17 - “Wow” (aka Mom Upside Down) + The Experiment

On page 17, the book states that “wow” is “mom” upside down.
 They use it a lot in the series, and it's corny, but I never noticed this before or even thought about what words would look like upside down. And now after reading this book, whenever I see the word wow imma think, “this is mom upside down.”

Then Dr. Snow does an experiment that the kids think is mind-blowing. He’s making a big deal about it, teaching like he’s performing for a live audience. As a ninth grader having watched a lot of science teachers doing experiments over the years, it made me laugh how dramatic it was.


Pg 25-26 - The Comparisons

Throughout the book the narrator, AJ uses a lot of comparisons or like metaphors. (Well I don’t know what exactly they would be called but something along the lines of comparisons or metaphors.) Here’s are 2 examples from page 25 and 26: 

  1. “When we got back to class, Mr. Cooper passed out. I mean, he passed out paper and pencils.”

  2. “Brainstorming is when you have a storm in your brain, so it has the perfect name.”

  3. ““I’ll be back in a few minutes to see how you’re making out.” “Ugh, gross!” we all shouted.”

Sometimes these made me wake up like reading that Mr. Cooper had passed out, grabbed my attention and made me want to continue reading to figure out how and why he passed out all of a sudden just to realize that he didn’t actually pass out. Other times these just stood out because they were weird or something.

Pg 34-35 - The Stairs 

This part really got my attention because climbing up a lot of stairs at school is terrible.
On these pages the kids are struggling up the stairs behind Dr. Snow, who is practically sprinting. They’re gasping for air, questioning their life choices, and I was like: yeah, that’s literally me a lot of times. Even though this scene was exaggerated like a lot of things in the series, it still felt a bit relatable. 


Pg 40 - 41 - Centripetal Force

Dr. Snow starts explaining centripetal force in front of the Eleven-year-olds. I think half the kids are confused, the other half are bored. I think this part stood out to me mainly because even I didn't know what centripetal force was until I read this book! According to Dr. Snow centripetal force is “when an object is moving in a circular path, centripetal force keeps it fixed on that path.” 


Pg 68 - “Dr. Snow Has Got to Go” Moment

This is the point where everyone realizes Dr. Snow has got to go. The kids decide something needs to change — and the title finally clicks. They’re officially done with this man so they hatch a plan to “catch him in the act.” 

Pg 84 - Door vs. Doorway

This is one of those comparison metaphor things I was talking about earlier. It's when the main character says, “ And you’ll never believe who walked through the door at that moment. Nobody! You can’t walk through a door. Doors are made of wood. But you’ll never believe who walked through the doorway.”

Final Thoughts

Reading this was honestly kinda fun. Dr. Snow is dramatic, over-the-top, and takes science way too seriously, which makes the whole book funny. The kids react in the most kid-like ways possible, and the whole story feels like a chaotic school day that just keeps getting worse.

It’s funny, quick, and exactly the kind of book I would’ve devoured in elementary school — but reading it now gives it a whole new layer of humor. The illustrations also made this book so much more unique and interesting to read! 

- Jiya

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