Puddlejumpers

by Mark Jean, Christopher Carlson

Overview

Ernie Banks, named for the legendary Chicago Cubs shortstop, is a troubled, thirteen-year-old juvenile delinquent. Abandoned on the doorstep of the Lakeside Home for Boys when he was three years old, he's now considered a "lifer," a permanent ward of the state. As a last reprieve before being sent to a juvenile detention facility, Ernie is allowed to spend three weeks on a working farm. When Ernie arrives at the home of Russ Frazier, he learns that the widower's baby was kidnapped years before, leaving behind a red quilt as the single piece of evidence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781423140962
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	09/13/2011
Series:	Digital Picture Book
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Lexile:	900L (what's this?)
File size:	602 KB
Age Range:	10 - 11 Years

About the Author

Mark Jean is an award-winning director, writer, and producer of film and television. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

Christopher C. Carlson lives in Los Angeles, where he writes, teaches, and rambles the Griffith and Elysian hills with his good dog, Mol.

Christopher and Mark have collaborated on several projects, including the screenplay for Cynthia Voigt's Homecoming. This is their first middle-grade novel.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 4-8- Shawn, whose mother died in childbirth and whose father, Russ, is a kind and conscientious Illinois farmer, is kidnapped at six months of age by Puddlejumpers, 11-inch-tall elflike creatures who live in an underground cavern complex and recognize Shawn as their "Rainmaker." Shawn is happily raised by them until age three when, chased by evil Troggs, he is lost and eventually left on the doorstep of the Lakeside Home for Boys near Wrigley Field in Chicago. Renamed Ernie Banks and in constant conflict with the cruel administrator, he is, at age 12, unknowingly farmed out to-you guessed it-Russ. Shawn/Ernie arrives to find drought and the evil Holsapple family ravaging the region and threatening his father. Their stinking oil wells pollute the landscape. Following well-established formula, Shawn/Ernie and his new friend Joey venture underground where they rediscover his roots. Events culminate in a Big Battle. Consumed by Hagdemonia, an enormous female oil refinery-sort of an anti-Mother Earth, Ernie dies, but because he still possesses the critical blue acorn crystal...you can imagine the rest, as this seemingly made-for-TV story ends happily, conveying that evil can be defeated by hard work, pluck, and determination. Reminiscent of T. A. Barron's The Ancient One (Philomel, 1992) in its combination of realistic initial setting and fantastical invented world of small humanoid creatures, this is a fast-paced, adventurous fantasy with interesting characters and an explicitly green environmental theme.-Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Junior High School, Iowa City, IA

School Library Journal

The Puddlejumpers-11-inch-tall creatures-are fighting the Trogs, huge troll-like monsters, but they need to borrow a human Rainmaker to succeed. They choose Shawn Frazier, whose mother died giving birth to him, kidnapping him and raising him to fulfill his destiny. Meanwhile, young Ernie Banks (who uses the name of the famous Cubs shortstop) struggles to grow up in an urban orphanage, where compliance-minded supervisor Mrs. McGinty disapproves of both his love of baseball and his independent streak. Their separate worlds mesh in a surprising climax on the farm run by Shawn's bereaved father, where the tale's mythic elements meet oil and machinery. It's an altogether engaging blend of fantasy and reality, but the mingling of two characters' blood in a bonding ritual seriously mars the whole. It's unfortunate that the plot logic depends so heavily on this rather hackneyed trope, as modern-day kids may well find themselves distracted by the notion of the commingling of blood rather than focusing on the true bonding of their partnership. Fatally flawed fun. (Fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews

Orphan Ernie Banks returns to rural Illinois to rediscover his past. He is the prophesied rainmaker for a tribe of ten-inch-high Puddlejumpers. Narrator Sean Kenin will have listeners rooting for Ernie to uncover his long-lost human family. Kenin's folksy, direct delivery is as intimate as it is appealing. We're drawn into the fantasy because Ernie Banks is all heart, and Kenin portrays him as such. Listeners won't want to leave him before his happy reunion with his father, not to mention his hair-raising Puddlejumper adventures. Other memorable characters include Joey, the irascible cowgirl, and salt-of-the-earth farmer Russ Fraser. Give a Puddlejumper cry of "hooty-hoo!" for this sparkling listen. C.A. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

OCT/NOV 08 - AudioFile