Pranks and Prejudice (The New Norm #2)

New

3.7

0.0 (0)

19 0

Write Review Add to favorites

Author(s)

Matthew J. Gilbert

Publisher

Simon Spotlight

Genre(s)

Age Range

Release Date

May 05, 2026

ISBN

B0FWZXCH6H

Buy This Book

A big prank becomes a big yikes in this second book in the New Norm middle grade series about surviving the cringe and chaos of middle school both online and IRL.

It only takes a stack of sticky notes to start the great prank challenge at Meadowview Middle School. Now everything and everyone is a potential target, and no one wants to be caught off guard in 4K.

Norm’s prank was a flop, but Mia’s idea is genius and Norm is all in. But when their prank brings more chaos than likes, no one is laughing. With upset students and angry faculty working together to hunt down the culprit, Norm and Mia must fix the mess or face the fire.

Editor review

1 review

Egg all over his face!

June 03, 2026

Overall rating

3.7

Plot

3.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

Things are hopping at Meadowview Middle School, and this time it's Norm's friend Jordan who is at the center of the social media whirl with his viral pranks. Norm is the victim of one when a vast quantity of glitter falls out of his locker at him, and he's a little jealous of his friend, since Norm's attempts to stay viral haven't gone well. The pranks escalate, with hot chili ookies, the mascot run up the flagpole, vaseline on the faucets, and all of the ink cartridges being stolen from the pens! When Mia (who masterminded the pen prank) thinks that she should be able to use her love of science to come up with an awesome prank, Norm thinks it's a good idea to have her engaged in some non academic activity. When she decides to hide eggs in the school and wait for the resultant stink, Norm doesn't think it's a great idea but helps her out. Not only does the school stink on Monday, but school gets cancelled! The administration is not happy, and cleaning up the stink is harder than Mia expected. Norm admits to his part in the prank to help take the heat off Mia, and his father isn't even mad, since he was helping out a friend. Will he be able to keep Mia out of trouble without getting in even more trouble himself?

Good Points

There are certainly a lot of pranks on social media; my school had bathroom sinks ripped out of the walls due to some viral TikTok challenge, so I appreciated that most of the pranks weren't that serious. The topic of social media popularity is very intriguing to middle school students, who will also like the idea of pranks.

This was a bit over the top at a few points; Jordan gives everyone at school cookies that are really just ground up beans with spicy salt in them. There might have been Homeroom Cookie Swaps in some schools before the pandemic, but with allergies and other concerns, I found it hard to believe that Jordan was only required to write a letter of apology to one teacher for this prank.

Mia's love of science is intriguing, and I hope to see more of her efforts at using this love of learning for good rather than for evil!

We need more amusing middle grade novels, so hand this to fans of books that explore the humorous side of social media like Lumsden and Pieplow's Confessions of a Mango, Baden's Famous Anonymous, or Soto's frenetic Gone Viral.