Children's Fiction Imagination & Play
Jasper John Dooley: Left Behind
- Publisher
- Kids Can Press
- Initial publish date
- Mar 2013
- Category
- Imagination & Play, Humorous Stories, School & Education, Multigenerational
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9781554535798
- Publish Date
- Mar 2013
- List Price
- $16.95
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781771381505
- Publish Date
- Sep 2014
- List Price
- $8.95
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781771380751
- Publish Date
- Sep 2014
- List Price
- $5.99
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Where to buy it
Out of print
This edition is not currently available in bookstores. Check your local library or search for used copies at Abebooks.
Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels
- Age: 7 to 10
- Grade: 2 to 5
- Reading age: 5 to 8
Description
Every Wednesday, Jasper John Dooley plays Go Fish for jujubes with Nan at her apartment. They ride up and down in the elevator as many times as he wants. And they use a trunk of old clothes for games of Dress Up Nan. So how can she go away on a cruise to Alaska for a week and leave him behind? Thinking about it makes Jasper feel funny. It's like all the air is seeping out through a hole in his belly. “It just feels pththth.” After Jasper accidentally staples his belly at school and gets two more holes, one Band-Aid alone isn't enough to keep the air inside him all week --- it takes thirty-four Band-Aids to patch him up! Will Jasper find a way to survive his time apart from Nan?
This title from the chapter book series by Caroline Adderson beautifully and age-appropriately conveys how it feels to love someone dearly, and to miss them terribly. It would make an excellent starting point for classroom discussions or writing assignments about these emotions. With its engaging and entertaining story, it will also be a favorite for independent reading time. Jasper John Dooley is a quirky and memorable character who is funny and just a bit irreverent. And Adderson's depictions of life in early elementary school are spot-on: particularly hilarious are the capitalized descriptive names, such as when Jasper gets in trouble for “doing a Very Dangerous Thing at recess.”
About the authors
Caroline Adderson is the author of Very Serious Children (Scholastic 2007), a novel for middle readers about two brothers, the sons of clowns, who run away from the circus. I, Bruno (Orca 2007) and Bruno for Real are collections of stories for emergent readers featuring seven year-old Bruno and his true life adventures.
Caroline Adderson also writes for adults and has won two Ethel Wilson Fiction Prizes, three CBC Literary Awards, as well as the 2006 Marion Engel Award given annually to an outstanding female writer in mid-career. Her numerous nominations include the Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist, the Governor General's Literary Award, the Rogers' Trust Fiction Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Most recently, Caroline was the Vancouver Public Library's 2008 Writer-in-Residence.
Her eight year-old son Patrick and his many friends inspire her children's writing. Caroline and her family live in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Caroline Adderson's profile page
Ben Clanton is an up-and-coming author-illustrator from Seattle who describes himself as a “story scribbler, picture squiggler, book aficionado, child advocate, dragon tamer and avid sock wearer.” Vote for Me! is the first book he has both written and illustrated.
Awards
- Commended, Best Bets Junior Fiction (Series), Ontario Library Association
- Short-listed, Chocolate Lily Award Chapter Book Category
- Winner, Best Books for Kids & Teens, Canadian Children's Book Centre
Editorial Reviews
Early chapter book or read-aloud, this effort will leave its audience with lots of smiles too.
Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
Fans will relish the return of Jasper and his irrepressible spirit.
Booklist Online
Emerging readers will enjoy following along with the quirky, charismatic boy and his friends and family in this humorous adventure. Pencil illustrations add to the story's charm.
School Library Journal
Adderson has a real sense of the strange, inventive imaginations (and emotions) of 7-year-olds and Jasper's adventures are funny, unpredicatable and utterly convincing. A worthy successor to the exceptional Jasper John Dooley: Star of the Week.
The Toronto Star
