Jasper John Dooley: Star of the Week

While award-winning author Caroline Adderson’s latest offerings appear disparate — an easy reader in a humorous series and a stand-alone dramatic novel — they share loving familial relationships and sensitive, kind and unusual protagonists.

In Jasper John Dooley: Star of the Week, the eponymous protagonist is perhaps the only child in his class who fails to understand that being the week’s “star” is an extended homework assignment. Indeed, much of the gentle humour in this book arises from the differences between what Jasper and the reader understand. Jasper cannot fathom, for example, why a classmate thinks he is poor when he brings his beloved collection of scented dryer lint for Show and Tell. Conflict arises when the birth of his friend Ori’s colicky sister eclipses Jasper’s star status. Jasper’s subsequent quest for his own “pretty purple” sibling causes a funny, touching chain of events during which Jasper discovers that a baby sibling is more than an attention-getting accessory. Jasper’s good-heartedness, hilarious logic and unique outlook will attract youngsters to this promising new series. They will also enjoy Clanton’s expressive, childlike, black-and-white drawings. Parents will appreciate the real issue that underlies the humour (i.e., Jasper’s unhappiness at his family’s size).

Jasper John Dooley is finally the Star of the Week at school, but things don’t go as planned and no one is interested in his Show and Tell. With the help of his parents, friends and a hammer and nails, Jasper manages to turn things around and regain his classmates’ attention.