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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enter cherry joke here, June 28, 2006
This review is from: Jumping the Scratch (Hardcover)
When you think of books in which mysteries take place, your mind instantly falls back onto Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, or maybe one of those charming Hardy Boy types. The full-range of mysteries in children's literature, by and large, is not particularly impressive. And the exception to this may lie in a single author of children's books; one Sarah Weeks. Beginning with her debut novel and impressive beginning, "So B It" and continuing with, "Jumping the Scratch", Weeks gives kids mysteries that go beyond secrets in old clocks or messages in lemon juice. Her mysteries are the day to day unexplained occurrences that make life so doggone interesting. In "So B It", a girl unravels the story behind her mother's past. In "Jumping the Scratch", however, the person holding the key to the mystery is the narrator himself. And he's not going to give up his secrets without a fight.
Jamie is miserable with a capital M. When he lived in Battle Creek, everything was "normal as cornflakes". He went to school with lots of friends. He adopted a stray cat who liked him and only him. Things were great! Then everything went wrong. His cat got run over in the street. Then his dad ran away with a cashier. Then his favorite aunt was involved in a freak accident at the cherry factory where she worked. And NOW he and his mom have gone to live with Aunt Sapphy up in Traverse City in a trailer park far from his friends and school. Oh. And there was one more bad thing that happened to Jaime, but he doesn't like to talk about it. All the reader knows for certain is that it involves butterscotch in some way and a button pressed firmly into a cheek. Now Jamie is going to try to erase the memory of that occurrence entirely from his brain, which at the same time trying to cure his Aunt Sapphy's own short-term memory loss. To do it, he'll have to befriend oddball Audrey, a girl who wears men's plastic glasses frames, and attempt to excise everything bad that he doesn't want to recall from his brain. Either that, or tell someone what happened.
Any children's book with even an oblique reference to child abuse is going to have to handle their material with infinite care. For example, Lois Lowry's recent, "Gossamer", is a lovely little title, but many people have had serious issues with how it deals with a boy's abusive situation. In the case of "Jumping the Scratch", adult readers instantly understand what it is that Jaime is trying to forget (though perhaps not the details). Children, on the other hand, won't know until Jaime finally flashes back to the horrible moment in question and they see first hand the incident. What adult readers will not instantly understand are some of Jaime's quirks. They won't immediately comprehend why he collects empty cherry cans or walks through snake-infested grass every day after school. Weeks takes infinite care in slowly revealing what her hero has suffered and in describing his elaborate coping mechanisms. At the same time, you feels he's a real kid. This is the kid that impatient adults (his teacher being the best example) have no time to understand and care for.
I was a little reluctant to believe some of Weeks' points, however. That after suffering at the hands of an adult male, Jaime would trust an adult male (albeit an author) so soon seemed a bit of a stretch. Then again, Weeks doesn't make Jaime out to be the kind of guy who instantly trusts anyone. I was reminded of a similar children's book, Jane Gardam's, "Long Way From Verona" (right down to the overly enthusiastic teacher) in which a kid's life is changed by an adult author who visits her class. It's an interesting trope. More problematic is the miracle deus ex machina that allows Sapphy to retain her memory at the end of the book. I'm no doctor but the sheer convenience of it all may ring a little false, even to young 'uns ears.
When an author writes a book and it's a hit, people immediately sniff around that author's second with the sole hope of determining whether or not that book is better or worse than it predecessor. They're hoping it'll be worse. With Weeks, it isn't like that. "Jumping the Scratch" is, to my mind, almost as good as "So B It", but an entirely different novel. It has a compelling and easily understood protagonist and has the added benefit of taking place in Traverse City (much like this year's other Traverse City tale for kids, "The One Left Behind" by Willo Davis Roberts). A title well worth checking out from a unique and powerful voice.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Unbelievable, November 29, 2006
A Kid's Review
This review is from: Jumping the Scratch (Hardcover)
Sarah Weeks did a wonderful job writing this novel. In this novel there is a boy named Jamie Reardon. At the beginning of this book his dad leaves him and his mom at home alone. After that Jamie's aunt has an accident at her work which causes her to loose her memory. So now they have to move to Aunt Sapphy's trailer to be with her. While they live there Jamie makes a friend and her name is Audrey. Audrey claims that she can hypnotize people. Through this story Jamie and his mom try to find the 'magic trigger' to make her remember. They want to help her 'jump the scratch.' Like on a record player, the needle needs to 'jump the scratch.' I really liked this book. Even thought the end it a little bit predictable, it is still surprising. I recommend this book for all young readers because I liked it a lot.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Courtesy of Teens Read Too, July 26, 2006
This review is from: Jumping the Scratch (Hardcover)
JUMPING THE SCRATCH is best described as a story about forgetting. For eleven-year-old Jamie, it's about forgetting an event that has traumatized him. For Sapphy, his aunt, it's about forgetting anything and everything that happens to her on a daily basis. But let's back up just a little bit...
Jamie Reardon has moved to Traverse City, Michigan, from Battle Creek, where he once had a real home, a mom and dad to always fix whatever was wrong, a cat named Mister who knew how to listen, and a normal-as-cornflakes life. But then Mister died, and his dad ran off with a cashier from the MicroMart, and his Aunt Sapphy was injured in a work-related accident. So that year, during fifth grade, Jamie and his mom moved in with Aunt Sapphy in her trailer at Wondrous Acres, and there was no big Thanksgiving dinner or sparkling Christmas tree. There was only Aunt Sapphy, who got hit on the head by a falling pipe during her shift at the Cheery Cherry canning factory, and now can't form any short-term memories. There's Jamie's mother, who took a third-shift job at the same cherry factory because it was the only place hiring. There's Marge, the home nursing aide, who doesn't like anyone, especially Aunt Sapphy. And then there's Jamie, who changed sometime around Christmas, and yet no one seems to notice.
While Jamie is busy dodging the verbal bullets of his teacher, Miss Miller, and the crazy questions of Audrey Krouch, a fellow student who also lives in Wondrous Acres, he's also trying to forget. Forget what happened on Christmas Eve, with Old Gray, the guy who sits in the office at the trailer park. It's funny how memories work. While Jamie works hard to find the magic trigger to give Sapphy back her memories, he wants nothing more than to erase his own.
It's easy to sympathize with Jamie, especially with the careless adults that surround him in JUMPING THE SCRATCH. Although I would have liked the story to be longer and more filled out, this is a quick, emotional read. It's definitely interesting to watch Jamie's transformation, to read about the intriguing Aunt Sapphy, and to see into the heart and mind of the wonderfully odd Audrey.
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