Review for Jasper John Dooley by Caroline Adderson

Guided Reading Level M

I read Book One in the series: Star of the Week. This is a great introduction to the quirky main character, Jasper John. He is the Star of the Week and this presents some challenges. To start his show and tell is a bit unusual. He collects lint, even of the belly variety. As you can imagine his classmate don´t quite get it. To make matters more complicated his best friend Ori´s baby sister has arrived and the announcement of that news derails his show and tell presentation.  

Speaking of Ori, he is an interesting character as well. He has a unique speech quirk. Ori starts most things he says with ¨The thing is¨.  There are plenty of opportunities to infer what is going on in Ori´s life in the wake of a new baby. For a children´s book, the character have pretty deep personality traits. This would be an excellent pick for character analysis projects.  

One small hiccup for me with the book is the fact that Jasper decided he wants a baby. Its quite cute the way it plays out as far as where babies come from. However in class I´m not sure that is a can of worms I would want to open. 

Another theme worth exploring in this chapter book is lying. As Ori makes it through the week he creatively solves problems as they come. One such problem leads to a fib about having a brother. He recovers from his lie with the creation of a wooden brother. It takes an interesting turn as Jasper Jacob´s imagination gets the best of him and his wooden brother turns out to be a bit of a trouble maker. 

Over all, I think this book makes an excellent read aloud with caution around the whole ¨where do babies come from¨ thing. Or a great addition to a summer reading list. :)