Book #98: Ferris Bueller's Day Off by Todd Strausser
Todd Strasser
Released: July 1st, 1986
My 41st book for 2025 was Todd Strasser’s "Ferris Bueller’s Day Off".
I'm really enjoying these Todd Strasser novelizations as he has brought some of my favorite films to literature form. I've read the Home Alone series, and it continues with Ferris Bueller here.
Ferris Bueller is one of my favorite movies ever. I remember as a kid seeing it for the first time. I was disappointed at first. My father often quoted Jeff Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and I was hoping we could rent it from Blockbuster Video. Unfortunately, it is Rated R, and at an age a bit too young, they decided against it, and opted for Ferris Bueller instead. Worthy alternative.
This is truly one of the funniest movies ever made, and after reading the book, the novelization is hilarious. It expands upon the movie. There are additional characters, (who knew the Buellers all had two additional children?) added scenes, and other great things. It was pretty great.
The most notable thing about the novel is that Ferris is a bit more of an antihero. He knows how to manipulate people for his own gain. In the movie, he is more happy-go-lucky. In the novel, he has more questionable motives.
This leads to the part of the book I laughed hysterically at. Ferris receives a phone call from his dad checking in on him. He needs money to spend on his day off from school, so he manipulates his father into telling him where the savings bonds are located. The exchange is brutally hilarious as the father things he's just sharing information with Ferris, not realizing Ferris has a plan for one of those bonds.
As always, the famous Ferris Bueller line rings true: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
I found this book online, and have been meaning to read it for a while. Currently, it goes for about $200 on Amazon (for a 40-year old paperback). Archive.org has a copy here if you would like to read it.
Here is what I learned:
—————
“There comes a time in every young man's life when the pressures of school and family routine become too much. When his instinct to survive overpowers his ability to reason. When he absolutely must fake out his parents and his teachers and blow off a day of school. When he must head downtown with his best friend and his girl to see the sights, experience a day of freedom and show that with a little ingenuity, a lot of courage, and a red Ferrari, life at eighteen can be a joy.”
- Ferris Bueller lives in Shermer, IL.
- Shermer is a bedroom community.
- Ferris Bueller is 18-years-old.
"Anybody who says high school is fun isn't in high school, or they're from another country."
- Different from the film, Ferris Bueller has two younger siblings named Ricky and Kimberly.
- Jeannie Bueller is 17-years-old and has anger issues.
- Different from the movie, Jeannie is younger than Ferris.
- Cameron Frye is Ferris’ best friend.
- Cameron’s house is like a museum. It was very beautiful, very cold, and no one was allowed to touch anything.
- Sloane Petersen is Ferris’ girlfriend.
- Ferris plays the electric guitar.
- Cameron feels better when he’s sick.
- Including today, Ferris has been “sick” 9 times this semester.
- The Bueller’s family doctor is Dr. Albert.
- Clammy hands, blurry vision, and stomach cramps are the best nonspecific symptoms.
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
- Kimberly tells Ricky that when he turns 10, his head is going to swell up, and the parents would have to put him to sleep like the dog.
- Ricky is 7-years-old.
- The Bueller parents are Tom and Katie Bueller.
- Katie wears gold earrings in the shape of scallop shells.
- Jeannie has premenstrual syndrome.
- Ferris has bad aim when urinating.
- Jeannie has blonde hair.
- The Bueller’s are a 2 income family
- Kimberly is 12-years-old.
- Katie is a real estate broker.
- Sloane’s mom considers Ferris to be white middle-class suburban trash.
- Jeannie drives a new white Pontiac Fiero.
- Tom drives a maroon Audi.
- Katie drives a station wagon.
- Cut and Don’t get Caught: by Ferris Bueller.
- Ferris likes Oreos.
- Cameron has every cold medicine imaginable.
- Cameron is so tight that if you stuck a lump of coal up his ass, in two weeks, you’d have a diamond. And then Cameron would worry that he would owe taxes on it.
- Ferris steals $20 from Jeannie’s purse, and hunts for loose change and random money lying around the house.
- Shermer High School was built in 1955.
- Mr. Clark teaches English in Room 109.
"My best friend's sister's boyfriend's brother's girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who's going with a girl who saw Ferris pass out at Thirty-One Flavors last night. I guess it's pretty serious."
- Sloane is one of the best cheerleaders.
- Sloane has a GOA of 3.77.
- Ferris seems to know what life is all about.
- Jeannie hates Sloane.
- Sloane gets disappointed when she learns Ferris ditched without her.
- Ferris asked for a car for Christmas and got a computer instead.
- Cameron has a knack for electronics.
- Ferris manipulates his father for money.
- Ed Rooney is the principal of Shermer High.
- Ed rows 5 miles on his rowing machine every morning while he watches the news.
- He always does 40 push-ups and 100 sit-ups daily.
- Ed has been principal for 15 years.
- Grace Vine is Ed’s secretary.
- Shermer High is located on Stonevale Street.
- Ferris knows the number to the pay phone by the school office.
- Ferris has a collection of Talking Heads albums.
- Cameron drives a beat-up Honda Civic.
- Cameron goes off on a telephone survey requester for aerosol deodorants.
- Ferris has had students paged to the pay phone.
- Peggy Barnet is Sloane’s best friend.
- Florence Sparrow is the school nurse.
- Sloane’s father’s name is George.
- Cobalt and Nickel are strategic minerals.
- Cameron’s father owns a 1961 Ferrari 250 GTS California.
- Less than 100 units of the car were made.
- It has a market value of $165,000 in 1986. ($487,000~ in 2025 adjusted for inflation).
"It is his joy, it is his passion, it is his love, it is...his fault he didn't lock the garage."
"Ferris, my father loves this car more than life itself."
- Cameron’s father’s name is Horace.
- Horace doesn’t believe in trust.
- Horace smokes a briar pipe.
- Different from the film, the novel features a scene in the bank where Ferris almost runs into his mother. He creates a story about being out of school, married, with a child on the way.
- Jeannie’s friend is Sharon.
- Ferris’ grandfather once told him, “A rich man who lives like a poor man is poor, and a poor man who lives like a rich man is rich."
- Igor Puggha, and Sam White are the two parking attendants who took the Ferrari for a joyride.
- Ferris believes Cameron is an abused child.
- You can see Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Wisconsin from the Sears Tower.
- The Sears Tower is the former name of the now Willis Tower in Chicago.
- Ferris proposes to Sloane at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
- Sloane’s parents are divorced.
- Sloane’s father gave up the entire family for a 25-year-old secretary in his company.
- Ferris pretends to be Abe Frohman, the Sausage King of Chicago to eat at Chez Quis.
"A: You can never go too far. And B: If I'm gonna get busted, it's not gonna be by a guy like that."
- Cameron once thought about suicide when in Rockford but rejected the notion.
"From a statistical point of view, you spend so much more time dead than alive that you might as well enjoy being alive while you're alive."
- Ferris realized that basically he and Cameron had the same philosophy. Except, instead of trying to prove it with mathematical equations, Ferris just lived. If he saw an opportunity, he took it; if he wanted to have fun, he had fun. Statistics and the eventuality of death had nothing to do with it.
- The group eats Pancreas at the restaurant.
"Four thousand restaurants in the downtown area and I pick the one my father goes to.”
- Cameron almost enlisted in the Marines.
- Ferris like to drink Pepsi.
"In the old days people used to get religion. Then in the sixties they started getting causes. Now they get herpes."
- Rooney looks for Ferris at the Hot Dog Dump.
- It took Rooney 20 years to earn $40,000 annually in salary.
- Ferris and co. attend a Chicago Cubs game.
- Ferris has 2 men lower him into the dugout to sign a ball.
Cameron: "I mean, I just can't believe that he did that. First of all, no one else would even think of doing it. But not only does Ferris think of it, he goes right ahead and does it like it's the most natural thing in the world."
Sloane: “For him it is natural. He's the only person I've ever met who really believes that nothing is impossible. And it's almost like because he believes it, it comes true."
- Tom Hunley of radio station WLS also attended the baseball game
- Lou Richardson does the post-game shows on WLS.
- Ferris is invited to a radio interview for his stunt.
- The Bueller’s live on Maple St.
- Ferris kicks off a bull run in the stock market by yelling “Buy!” At the exchange.
- Chicago holds a parade for German-American Appreciation Day.
- Dave Goeffer is Lou’s intern at WLS.
- Muriel is the sound engineer at WLS.
- Rooney had not climbed a tree since he was 14-years old.
- Rooney expelled a kid for smoking in the boys room.
- Kimberly Bueller smoked pot in the attic at age 12.
- Julian is the name of the Bueller’s dog.
- Jeannie is trained in Tae-Quan-Do
- At the beginning of the day, the car has 126.7 miles on it.
- At the end of the day, the car has 432.7 miles on it.
- Cameron slipped Sloane the tongue.
- The punk that Jeannie meets at the police station is Garth Volbeck.
- Places visited: Sears Tower, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Chez Quis, Museum of Art, a sight-seeing boat down the Chicago River, Wrigley Field, WLS, and Glencoe Beach Pier.
Overall, great read. It follows the film for the most part. The scenes are hysterical. You will laugh out loud incredibly hard and have a good time enjoying it. Even more so if you are a fan of the film. If you haven't seen that yet, also highly recommended viewing.
Highly Recommended!
On to Book #99: Matterhorn by Christopher Reich.
Comments
Post a Comment