6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Coupons for living, February 17, 2002
This book was first published in 1999 in French, under the title of Joker. The class returning to an unnamed grammar school for its final year were happy about finishing a French summer that grown boring, but found their new teacher, Hubert Noel, decidedly alarming.
He sat behind the desk like some unmovable tree trunk, and was so fat that Mohammed wondered if he were seeing double, or triple. He had so many wrinkles that some students thought he resembled "those pictures of God, with messy white hair and reading glasses perched on the end of his nose, not to mention the balloon potbelly." His voice sounded like it came from the bowels of the earth.
But most alarming of all were the first words he spoke. Not, "my name is," or "sit down please" but "I have a present for you." And then the monstrosity gave each student a wrapped package. Inside, the children each discovered a book of coupons. They were not the kind of coupons one could use in a store.
No, each book contained one coupon for activities usually forbidden by schools--sleeping late, skipping a day of school, being late to school, losing your homework, forgetting your books, not listening in class, sleeping in class, copying from your neighbor, not going when called to the blackboard, getting out of trouble, eating in class, making a lot of noise, singing at the top of your lungs when you like, dancing in class, taking a break, clowning around, telling a lie and giving the teacher a kiss.
The children were so startled by what they found that Benedicte, whom Mr. Noel appointed to read the coupons, had to stop, and Mohammed took over. He read six more coupons--one each for hugging whomever you like, taking your own sweet time, taking a never--ending recess, forgetting the books for your assignment, taking a longer vacation and the piece de resistance, one wild card coupon.
At first the students used lots of coupons, but as the year progressed, they found that it was more fun to come to school and use the coupons en masse. This made for some surprising capers.
Everything Mr. Noel offered them was some present. An assignment to read Charles Dickens, for example, began with their receipt of gift-wrapped copies of David Copperfield. Try as they might to avoid reading it, they rather enjoyed the--er, presents--that Mr. Noel had given them. Aside from the pleasant fact that the author had the same name, Charles found he could not put the book down, and stayed up all night reading, which led him to use his late-to-school coupon the next day.
Before long, Mr. Noel got himself into very hot water with the tyrannical school principal, Incarnation Perez. How he extracted himself from that difficulty is but one of the things that makes this book magical.
Another is the priceless lesson that Mr. Noel imparted. "When you're born, you get a whole bunch of coupons."
Which ones? Charles, Laurent, and Benedicte shouted, the coupons for life--for walking, speaking, learning to read, learning languages, learning geography biology and all the other `ologies,' for sports, the coupons for love.
Then the children did something very wild with their 26 collected wild card coupons. But you'll have to read this delightful tale to find out what. Alyssa A. Lappen
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