MacDonald Hall Goes Hollywood by Gordon Korman, 1991.
MacDonald Hall has been picked as a location for filming a movie about a boarding school, and people are going crazy (or crazier than normal)! Bruno hopes that he’ll be discovered and become a movie star. His attempts to insinuate himself (not very subtly) into various scenes keep getting him into trouble.
The girls at Miss Scrimmage’s Finishing School for Young Ladies all have a crush on the teen star of the movie, Jordie Jones, further annoying Bruno. Cathy and Diane, Bruno and Boots’s friends at Scrimmage’s, are especially getting on his nerves with their wild schemes to meet Jordie in person.
Meanwhile, poor Jordie wishes that he could live life out of the limelight for awhile. His manager worries about him excessively and never lets him do anything fun. In spite of his many admirers, Jordie is lonely because he spends all of his time with the movie people and doesn’t have many friends his own age. Nobody has even remembered his birthday!
Bruno and Boots discover Jordie’s woes when Bruno tries to play a mean trick on Jordie, due to his jealousy of all the attention Jordie gets. After Jordie opens up to the guys about his problems, Bruno feels more sympathetic toward him and decides to help. The boys invite Jordie to play poker with them (after lights out and against school rules), take him to a dance at Miss Scrimmage’s (in disguise as a prince from a made-up country), and even get him to help with a hockey game as goalie (which earns Jordie a black eye).
Jordie has been having the time of his life, but the boys still have to conceal his activities as much as possible and deal with his over-protective manager, his rabid fans at Miss Scrimmage’s, and as always, The Fish. Mr. Sturgeon (aka The Fish), is sympathetic to Jordie because he knows that activities like these are important to his growth as a person, but the movie people crack down on Jordie’s activities because the black eye interferes with his filming.
Although Jordie is supposed to keep quiet and let his eye heal, he runs away to join Bruno and Boots and several other boys on the school’s traditional wilderness survival trip (known to the students as “Die-in-the-Woods”). It isn’t long before Jordie is discovered among them, but before the trip is over, the others are going to be glad that he’s there.
This book is part of the MacDonald Hall Series (or Bruno and Boots series). It is currently available online through Internet Archive.
The Zucchini Warriors by Gordon Korman, 1988.
The War with Mr. Wizzle by Gordon Korman, 1982.
Beware the Fish! by Gordon Korman, 1980.
This Can’t Be Happening at MacDonald Hall by Gordon Korman, 1978.
The Tap Dance Mystery by Susan Pearson, 1990.
Eagle-Eye Ernie Comes to Town by Susan Pearson, 1990.
The 123 Zoo Mystery by Susan Pearson, 1991.
The Ghost on the Hill by Grace Maccarone, 1990.
When they reach the state park, Dennis Ten Foot Bridge, who is the last of his tribe, tells the students about his tribe, teaches them wilderness skills, and leads them in group activities. One evening, Joey goes out to practice some rowing on the lake by himself, and he sees what looks like a large ghost at the top of a hill However, everyone knows that Joey lies about a lot of things, so at first, no one believes him. At least, no one except Adam.
The Return of the Third-Grade Ghosthunters by Grace Maccarone, 1989.
They try to use scientific methods to study the haunting. They measure the placement of the furniture to see if anything moves while they’re out and sprinkle flour on the floor to get footprints. But, even though they watch carefully and don’t see anyone enter the bunk house, when they go inside, everything is a mess, and the flour doesn’t appear disturbed. Everyone else is about ready to admit that this one is a real ghost, but Adam has another theory.
