Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

Ratings Explanation

Language: Name calling and belittling

Violence: Fighting with fists, brooms and mops.

Adult Situations: Spencer’s father has left their family. Adults lie to children. Garth uses children to help him gain power.

Synopsis

Spencer Zumbro is starting sixth grade at a new school. So far, things aren’t going so great. To make things worse, he keeps falling asleep in class. During one of his little naps, the class bully draws on his face with permanent marker. Spencer runs to the bathroom to clean it off. The only thing he can find is a mysterious bottle of pink soap which burns his face but removes the marker. That is when he first notices the strange creatures roaming the school. The problem is, no one else can see them, except for maybe the janitors, who seem to be chasing them down with their cleaning equipment. Everyone starts to think Spencer is a little crazy. Everyone that is except a mysterious man named Garth Hadley. Garth convinces Spencer to follow him out to his van one day after school, where he promises to explain everything. The van is loaded with all kinds of janitorial supplies, which Garth explains are actually magical. Garth tells Spencer that he is from the BEM, a special division that protects students from evil, magical janitors. Spencer is not quite sure how to take all of this in, but when Garth invites him to help debilitate the evil warlock janitor who reigns in his school, he can’t pass it up. Spencer is given a few magical tools to help him locate the bronze nail and hammer which are the source of the warlock’s power. Spencer decides he needs help and recruits his gullible classmate Daisy. After exposing her to the mysterious soap, Daisy too can see the magical creatures and joins Spencer in his quest to save their school. After unwillingly becoming involved in all kinds of menacing and rule breaking activities to help Garth, Spencer and Daisy are suspended from school and given detention with the dreaded janitors. After a few days working with the ‘evil’ janitors Marv and Walter, they learn the story of the strange creatures from a different perspective. The janitors tell them that it is actually Garth Hadley who is the evil one and they are only trying to protect the school from him. They explain that Garth is actually trying to keep the strange creatures around to drain the smarts out of all the kids. That changes everything. Spencer and Daisy join the janitor team and learn to use a whole new set of magical cleaning supplies. It is now up to them to try and save their school from Garth and his BEM team.

This book has been a huge hit at our school, especially with the upper elementary kids. Who would have thought that cleaning supplies would make such an impact on the literary world? I enjoyed the twists and turns of the plot up to the very end which opens up all kinds of possibilities for a sequel. A great book for all ages.