Anyone read this book? It's by Stanley Kiesel, and it's amazing. Imagine "Phantom Tollbooth" meets "Wayside Stories" with a dash of "Brave New World" (not the sex stuff). There's a girl who eats her teacher, shark-infested rice pudding, a jousting tournament, sewer-dwelling bookworms, a talking ant and a machine that turns Kids into Young People.
I have no particular point to raise bringing this up, I just saw there was no post yet in this forum, so here it goes -- this is one of the few really classic, awesome young people's fiction that hasn't been made into a movie or TV show, even though it would be a great one. If I had the chance to adapt any story into a screenplay, it'd be this one.
Ignore the book's utterly sh*tty cover and blurb -- it was the 80s, so everything sucked -- which are misleading. it's not even available as an ebook.