Go Jump in the Pool! is Gordon Korman's fifth novel starring the duo of Canadian boarding-school students Bruno Walton and Melvin "Boots" O'Neal. It was published in 1979 by Scholastic's Apple Paperbacks. The cover is horrendous, featuring two maybe fifth-grade kids gleefully observing foam bubble out of a pool as a swim coach wears an expression of alarm. The back is worse, the summary being tripe that would make an illiterate ill. Don't be put off, as this is still good Gordon Korman writing.
The book opens with a swim meet between Macdonald Hall, the home of our heroes, and their rivals, York Academy. the Hall loses, bemoaning their lack of a swimming pool, and York Academy leaves them without even a handshake. Luckily, Bruno, the more adventurous of the pair of protagonists, has a crate of Fizz-All Upset Stomach Remedy for just such an occaison. They dump it into their rivals' pool, and earn themselves their first visit to Mr. Sturgeon, their headmaster, nicknamed The Fish. They learn that Macdonald Hall would have had a pool built for the current year, but they are $25,000 short.
Those familiar with Korman's characters can guess what happens next: wacky hijinks. Bruno, as per usual, enlists the entire school, this time for fundraising campaigns, involving the girls' school across the road, and causing mayhem. This is lent urgency by Boots' athletic father that might send him to York Academy for their superior sports program. This is the fun part of the book, and it involves sweepstakes, a talent show, and a photography contest. It wraps up to a satisfying conclusion after 170-odd pages. While it's hardly great literature, Korman was in true form when he wrote it, and it is good, funny light reading, even when one isn't in the target audience of middle schoolers.