Mrs. Gorf (book chapter)

Illustrated by Tim Heitz.

"**Mrs. Gorf**" is the first chapter of *Sideways Stories from Wayside School*.

## Synopsis

During the first week at Wayside School, an evil teacher named Mrs. Gorf transforms all the students in her class into apples.

## Plot

This chapter introduces the classroom on Wayside School's 30th floor. Their teacher is a strict woman named Mrs. Gorf, who is the meanest teacher in Wayside School and has a long tongue and pointed ears. She doesn't like children, but she loves apples, so she tells the class that if they misbehave even slightly, she will turn them into apples by wiggling her ears and sticking out her tongue. One by one, Mrs. Gorf turns the children in her classroom into apples whenever they misbehave, get an answer wrong, or do something even slightly disruptive. First, Joe is transformed into an apple for cheating off of John, and John is transformed for letting Joe cheat. Todd claims this is unfair, since John was trying to help a friend, but gets transformed into an apple as well. Mrs. Gorf moves the apples to her desk, and Stephen cries out of fear, getting transformed into an apple as well because Mrs. Gorf doesn't allow crying in class. Everyone remains quiet for the rest of the day until they can go home, but the four transformed students remain apples, with little to say to each other.

The next day, Kathy shows up late and is transformed into an apple. Paul sneezes, and is transformed into an apple, while Nancy is also transformed for saying "God bless you!" to him. Terrence falls out of his desk and gets transformed. Maurecia tries to escape, but before she can enter the hallway, Mrs. Gorf transforms her into an apple. Mrs. Gorf moves the apples to her desk, but shortly after trips over a piece of chalk, causing the Three Erics to laugh and get transformed into apples as well.

Louis the yard teacher passes by Mrs. Gorf's classroom and sees all the apples on her desk, but he doesn't deduce that something is very wrong even though a dozen kids are missing from the class. Instead, he believes that Mrs. Gorf's students must love her very much if they give her so many apples. He walks in the next day, seeing a dozen more apples, with only three kids left in the class, and assumes Mrs. Gorf is the best teacher in the world. By the end of the week, Mrs. Gorf has turned all the students into apples, and decides that she can finally quit her job. However, before she can leave, Todd jumps off the desk and attacks her, followed by the other student-turned-apples.

They force Mrs. Gorf to turn them back into students, and Mrs. Gorf obliges. After the students are turned into humans again, they threaten to get Louis and expose Mrs. Gorf's secret to him. This makes Mrs. Gorf so angry that she tries to turn the students into apples again, but Jenny holds up a mirror in front of Mrs. Gorf, causing her to turn herself into an apple. Just then, Louis comes in and asks where Mrs. Gorf is, but the kids decide not to tell him what happened. Louis sees the apple on Mrs. Gorf's desk, and thinking she won't mind, decides to eat it for a snack, not knowing that the apple is actually Mrs. Gorf.

## Characters

* Mrs. Gorf (debut)
* Joe (debut)
* John (debut)
* Todd (debut)
* Stephen (debut)
* Kathy (debut)
* Paul (debut)
* Nancy (debut)
* Terrence (debut)
* Maurecia (debut)
* Eric Fry (debut)
* Eric Bacon (debut)
* Eric Ovens (debut)
* Louis (debut)
* Jennifer (debut)

## Trivia

* Louis Sachar wrote this story in high school under the title "Apple Power." His teacher actually disapproved of the story, ripped it up, and felt Louis didn't take the project seriously, but Louis enjoyed it, and eventually had a rewritten version of it be the first chapter of *Sideways Stories from Wayside School*.
* This marks the debut of Mrs. Gorf, Joe, John, Todd, Stephen, Kathy, Paul, Mac, Terrence, Maurecia, Eric Fry, Eric Bacon, Eric Ovens, Louis, and Jenny.
* This chapter would later be adapted into an episode of the cartoon called "Mrs. Gorf."
* To listen to the book by audio, click here.

## Gallery

Dennis Hockerman illustrationJulie Brinckloe illustrationAdam McCauley illustration
### Foreign editions

Peter Allen illustration (UK)Hillar Mets illustration (Estonia)Unknown illustration (China, Traditional Chinese)Satoshi Kitamura illustration (Japan)Unknown illustrator (China, Simplified Chinese)