Tim Heitz's illustration for the chapter
Mrs. Jewls is the second chapter of Sideways Stories From Wayside School.
Summary[]
A woman known as Mrs. Jewls becomes the new teacher after Mrs. Gorf. When she first sees the children, she pictures them as monkeys until the students convince her that they're not monkeys.
Characters[]
Plot[]
After Mrs. Gorf was eaten in the last chapter, a woman named Mrs. Jewls is hired to take her place. The class on the 30th floor has been without a teacher for three days, and they never told anyone what happened to Mrs. Gorf. Even though their new teacher will be much nicer than Mrs. Gorf, the students are nervous because they never had a nice teacher before. Mrs. Jewls is equally nervous because she never taught children before. However, when she first sees her students, she figures that they must be monkeys, because she has never seen children so cute. She refuses to believe that the children aren't monkeys, and the students persuade her that they're humans in order to change her mind. Once Mrs. Jewls stops believing that her students are monkeys, she begins teaching normally and decides to make them take a test. Jason remarks that he liked Mrs. Jewls' original idea better.
Memorable Quotes[]
- Narrator: Mrs. Jewls looked at the children. They were horribly cute. In fact, they were much too cute to be children.
- Mrs. Jewls: (after mistaking students for monkeys) This is ridiculous. Just ridiculous. I walked all the way up thirty flights of stairs for nothing but a class of monkeys. What do they think I am? I'm a teacher, not a zookeeper!
- Jason: My name is Jason. And I'm not a chimpanzee.
- Mrs. Jewls: You're too small to be a gorilla.
- Mrs. Jewls: Do monkeys know that they are monkeys?
- Allison: I don't know. I'm not a monkey.