Douglas Fairchild, American ambassador’s son, starts 6th grade at a new school in Washington D.C. after being kicked out of private school. He just thinks the teachers there didn’t understand him because he is from “Pefkakia” (the country in which he was born). After telling the bus driver how to drive and refusing to do his homework, Doug ends up in an after-school counseling group for the school misfits, better known as “The Twinkie Squad”. In his own eccentric way, Doug brings the group together and gains them respect from the schoolmates who used to taunt them, but only after repeated disasters and mishaps as his plans go awry. Interesting to TCKs will be the way Doug clings to the fact that he was born in Pefkakia and uses it to explain why he is different than everyone else, though he never spent actual time there. This alienates him from his peers but also helps him explain away their rejection by saying it is because they “misunderstand him.”
Reading level: age 9-12 years