The Janitor's Boy by Andrew Clements

"And what do you want to be when you grow up, Jack?"
There was no hesitation. Jack smiled with perfect second-grade certainty and he said, "I want to be a janitor, like my dad."
Before Miss Patton could say something like, "That's great, Jack," some kids in the class began to giggle. Raymond Hollis blurted out, "A janitor? That's a job for dum-dums! Hey, Jack wants to grow up to be a dum-dum like his dum-dum daddy!"
That got the whole class laughing. Miss Patton shushed them and said, "Raymond, that was not nice, and you owe Jack an apology. Being a janitor is a perfectly good job, and I'm sure Jack is very proud of his dad."
Jack was proud of his dad, and he loved him very much. But laughter from kids is more powerful than words from teachers. Raymond had to stand up and say, "I'm sorry, Jack," but Jack could tell he didn't mean it.
Ever since that day in second grade, whenever the conversation turned toward parents and jobs, Jack clammed up.

The Janitor’s Boy is the story of Jack, whose father is the janitor at the old high school, where all middle school students will be transferred until their new building's construction is completed. Jack’s father calls out “Hi Son!” one day in the middle of a class and he is mortified and angry as the other students tease Jack about his father’s job. To get back at his father, Jack chews up multiple pieces of the stickiest, smelliest gum he can find (13 pieces of Bubblicious watermelon flavor) to stretch and smear under a desk and seat so that his father will have to scrape it off.
When the principal catches Jack, his consequence is to help the janitor scrape gum off of desks and tables after school for three weeks. While working out his punishment, Jack finds a cabinet that holds keys to different locations in the school. Jack takes a copy of the keys to the bell tower and the storm tunnel, which runs under the school and under nearly the whole town of Huntington. Jack explores different places in the school until he finds the storm tunnel. When entering the storm tunnel, Jack accidentally locks himself in, and gets lost in its vast twists and turns. Jack has to explore the dark tunnel to find a way to escape and eventually sees a light coming from a nook in the tunnel. In the nook, he meets a young man who is living in the tunnel and Jack comes to learn many things about his father, the janitor because of this encounter. Jack finds out that after his father had returned from Vietnam, he had problems re-entering society. To help John out, the janitor at this school helps him get a job, and later, John finds out that his new friend and co-worker has given up overtime and some of his own work hours so that John could have the job. This act of kindness is never forgotten and John is determined to “pay it forward” for the rest of his life. Consequently, Jack learns that his father had set up this place in the storm tunnel as a safe location for people in need of a place to stay beginning with his army buddy Lou, who is now his co-worker. Jack even finds out that his father has tapped into the city’s electrical lines in order to give the nook’s residents needed electricity. Yet, his father also installed a meter and makes donations each month to the city for the amount of electricity that is used. On the refrigerator in the nook, Jack sees a whole list of people (beginning with Lou) who have been helped in such ways by his father and others. The young man living in the nook eventually helps Jack get out of the tunnel.
Jack's emergence from the dark storm tunnel into the light could be considered a metaphor for Jack's enlightenment after years of being unaware of his father's benevolence. Now, the laughter of the other students doesn’t seem to hold the same power over him. For now Jack knows the real work of his father’s hands, and he holds a new respect for the hard work which his father carries out for others, both publicly and privately.
Andrew Clements, once again tells a “coming of age” story with humor and poignancy, for parental embarrassment is an almost universal phenomenon of adolescence.
This story is a natural fit for teaching character education, teaching theme, or for teaching dynamic characterization, or internal conflict.