"Stranger things have happened, especially in driver's education class."

April 7, 2014 9:26 AM

So I read a children's book as a kid in the 1980s that used the title quote as a running gag. Can anybody identify it?

It may or may not have been a guide to surviving school. It was almost certainly a paperback from a Scholastic book order. (I had thought it was by Jovial Bob Stine, but no book of his that the Internet knows of seems to fit. It might have been bundled with one of his books, though?)

posted by Shmuel510 to Writing & Language (4 answers total)

I don't know what this is, but I wanted to say that I remember it vaguely too. I would have read it in the 1980s in New Zealand, and probably also through a Scholastic book order, as most of my books were from there.
posted by lollusc at 6:35 PM on April 7, 2014

Are you absolutely sure it's not one of the "Everything You Need to Survive ____" books "Jovial Bob" Stine co-wrote with his wife Jane? For some reason, they're not listed on his Amazon/Wikipedia pages.
posted by breakfasterandslower at 11:55 PM on April 7, 2014 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Ooh. I'd failed to find those on previous searches. I just ordered a used copy of the Homework one.

(I'd previously ruled out "Bored with Being Bored," "How to be Funny," "You Know It's Going to Be a Long/Great School Year When..." "The Sick of Being Sick Book," and "The Cool Kids' Guide to Summer Camp.")
posted by Shmuel510 at 8:21 AM on April 8, 2014

Response by poster: I can now report that it's not "Everything You Need to Survive Homework" or "Everything You Need to Survive First Dates." And based on the style and format of those two, I can rule out that entire series.
posted by Shmuel510 at 4:45 PM on April 18, 2014