Wayside School is a series of short story cycle children's books written by Louis Sachar.
While a student at University of California, Berkeley, author Louis Sachar began working at an elementary school to earn college credit.
College credits, no homework, no term papers, no tests, all I had to do was help out in a second/third-grade class at Hillside Elementary School in Berkeley, California.
The third book introduces her son, Mr. Gorf, who could steal voices through a third nostril, alongside Mrs. Drazil, Louis's old teacher who remembers students that forgot homework assignments from decades ago, and Ms. Wendy Nogard, who could read thoughts with a third ear on the top of her head.
Mrs. Surlaw is the librarian on the seventh floor, who owns a large stuffed walrus that students can hug after they have checked out a book.
Miss Zarves is the teacher of the nineteenth story, which doesn't exist; her class includes four students named Ray, Virginia, Nick, and Mark.
A few more characters include Hobo Bob, a hobo who hates socks brought in by Sharie for show-and-tell; Xavier Dalton, a man who made Ms. Nogard bitter and hateful after being disgusted by her third ear; Mr. Finch, a man who saved up his life savings to start an ice cream company; and the numerous cows, one of which ended up on the nineteenth story, that came to the school leading to it being shut down for 243 days.