Customer Reviews

The Jacket

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is written in a brisk style. The pace is quick and not heavy on detail. Instead Andrew Clements takes the time to let us into the mind of a young man struggling with his feelings. I really applaud Andrew Clements for taking on a sensitive issue.
This story gives a picture of a brief encounter between two young men Phil and Daniel. In this encounter Phil and Daniel squabble over the ownership of the jacket Daniel is wearing.
This event pushes Phil to really think about who he is and what his core beliefs are. You see, Daniel is an African American boy and Phil happens to be white. Phil begins to question if he is actually a predjudiced person.
Clements does a wonderful job of portraying Phil's questioning. He also touches on the way we are shaped by the views of a parents, whether we realize it or not! Clements also shows us that we can rise above the misconceptions and predjudices of our environment. Which to me, is the greatest message in this story.
I'm sure this story would challenge the thinking of late elementary students and middle school students. The copy I read has great discussion questions for literature groups.
I really enjoyed it... and I'm sure you would too!

This story is about a boy named Phil. Phil is white and when he sees a black boy, Daniel wearing his brother's jacket, he assumes that it has been stolen. This causes a fight between Phil and Daniel, and a lot of hard feelings, because Daniel did not steal the jacket. Both of the boys end up in the principal's office and Daniel threw the jacket down and said, "Fine, you can have it." Phil left the jacket there, and the Principal hung the jacket up on a hook. The jacket was given to Daniel by his grandma, who is the cleaning lady at Phil's house. Phil feels very crappy after this. He didn't know that his mom gave the jacket to Daniel's grandma. But what he feels really bad about is getting mad at Daniel. He realizes that he is prejudiced and that bothers him. He solves the problem by sneaking into the Principal's office and takes the jacket. On the weekend, he runs over to Daniel's house in the poor part of town, with the jacket. He felt a little scared there, so he ran to Daniel's house to return the jacket and apologize. Over time, the two boys become friends.

Phil realized he was prejudiced in this book. I think some people are prejudiced and they don't even realize it. Where I live, there are prejudiced people who call each other bad names because of their race or skin color.

I would recommend this book to other kids who want to learn about how not to judge people by their color or where they live.

I was looking for an easy read for my students. Something not too wordy but engaging. I found that in Andrew Clements THE JACKET. My diverse group of students identified with both of the main characters and read eagerly to see how the situation would turn out. Now I can't find enough Andrew Clements for these kids who used to hate reading.

This book has a wonderful plot and theme. It starts off with a white boy accusing an African-American boy of stealing his brother's jacket. The principal is then involved... after a talk in her office the African-American boy refuses to wear the jacket because he learns that it was given to him, he thinks that it was charity. Later, after much thought the white boy wonders whether or not he accused the boy just because he was black and whether or not he regards them as the same standard as other white kids. Do you?

This was a very interesting, thought-provoking book.

Phil, a sixth-grader, is running late. He is trying to find his little brother, who forgot his lunch money, before class starts. When he runs down the hall, he sees the back of his brother's jacket, but when he grabs it, it is not his brother wearing it. It is a black kid who Phil accuses of stealing his brother's unique jacket.

The two boys are sent to the principal's office to sort out their argument, and there they find out that the jacket the black boy, Daniel, is wearing is the one that used to belong to Phil's brother. Phil's mother gave the jacket to her cleaning lady and she gave the jacket to her grandson, Daniel. When Daniel finds out that the jacket was given to his grandmother by Phil's mother, he is angry and throws it on the ground.

This incident starts a journey of self-discovery for Phil, who is suddenly very conscious of white and black. He wonders if he would have reacted the same way if Daniel had been white, and he worries that he might be prejudiced without even realizing it. He journey takes him to Daniel's house where he goes to return the jacket and apologize, and he is surprised by what he finds out about black neighborhoods and about himself.

I liked how Phil was so distraught about the thought that he might be prejudiced, even though his parents kept telling him that it was no big deal. It was sad, though, to read about a kid going through a kind of crisis like Phil and not having anyone to help him out.

I liked this book a lot! I would rate this book, from a 1-10 scale, a 10!!!! Throughout the whole book I don't think there was a boring part or a funny part. This book is not confusing at all otherwise I probably wouldn't pick it out. So if you read this book, I hope you like it. Thanks for reading my awesome review on " TheJacket"

The thing I didn't like about the book The Jacket was that it didn't really have an ending.
The thing I did like about the book was the lesson of the story. The story is about prejudice.

The thing I think could have made the book better would be to of said whether or not Phil and Daniel became friends.
I thought the story was a little short to have explained the story so that you new what the problem was, the solution, and how it worked out.

This felt like half a story to me. I kept looking for more pages, surely it didn't just end there! I love Clements' books, they are some of my favorites, but this resolution is too quick and easy.

I got this book because I've read most of Andrew Clements children chapter books. Most of the are 4 or 5 star worthy. This one wasn't. I finished the book in 17 minutes. It was very boring, yet some how it was kind of interesting.
It is about a child that THINKS he is predujuce. Please excuse my spelling on that one word.

My ten year old son loved the two previous books he had read by the author, so I bought him this one. He told me that it was very short and lacked action. Being a mixed race boy he did identify with the situation, but was rather disappointed with the story.