Three Sideways Stories – Simple Summary

Introduction

Three Sideways Stories is written by Louis Sachar and adapted for the stage by Aaron Shepard.

It is a humorous lesson about non-linear or sideways thinking.

The three stories take place in Mrs. Jewls’s classroom at Wayside School.

Wayside School was built sideways, with thirty classrooms on thirty floors.

 

Story 1 – Joe and Counting

Joe has difficulty counting correctly.

Mrs. Jewls keeps him after class to help him learn counting.

She asks him to count objects such as pencils, potatoes, books and erasers.

Joe always gives the wrong answer when he counts in the usual way.

Surprisingly, he sometimes gets the right answer when he counts the wrong way.

This makes Mrs. Jewls very frustrated.

Joe finally says, “When I count the wrong way, I get the right answer.”

The story shows that things do not always work in the usual way.

 

Story 2 – Bebe and Calvin

Bebe is the fastest artist in the class.

She can draw many pictures in a very short time.

Calvin thinks he is not good at drawing.

Instead, he helps Bebe by changing her paper and crayons quickly.

Their teamwork helps Bebe draw hundreds of pictures.

One day, Bebe draws 378 pictures.

Mrs. Jewls tells Calvin that real art takes time.

Bebe understands that she should spend more time on her drawings and goes home to draw one careful picture of a cat.

Story 3 – Calvin and Miss Zarves

Mrs. Jewls asks Calvin to deliver a note to Miss Zarves on the nineteenth floor.

Calvin searches for the nineteenth floor but there is no nineteenth floor.

There is also no Miss Zarves because the floor does not exist.

Calvin returns to Mrs. Jewls after walking up all the stairs.

Mrs. Jewls thanks him for delivering the note.

The note says that Mrs. Jewls and Miss Zarves will not meet for lunch.

The story is funny because neither the nineteenth floor nor Miss Zarves exists.

 

Main Idea

The three stories use humour and strange situations to show the importance of thinking differently.

They teach us that there can be unexpected answers and unusual ways of solving problems.