Junglerama (Apple Fiction) - Softcover

Grove, Vicki

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0590431633 ISBN 13: 9780590431637

Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks, 1991

Synopsis

Three twelve-year-olds escape from the harsh realities of life in their small Missouri town, where the family farm is rapidly disappearing, to their clubhouse in an abandoned carnival trailer named Junglerama

About this title

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-9-- In her second novel, Grove reveals again that rural, small-town America is not immune to life's complexities and harsh realities. During one hot summer, a trio of 12-year-old boys (one black, two white) learn the difference between illusion and reality. Orphaned Easy Jack cares for his drunken Uncle Judd and has great hopes for the ramshackle "Judson's Bird Emporium"; Mike perceives his stablehand father as a cowboy who will one day reclaim the farm they've lost; and T.J. tries to forget his parents' arguments, his mother's neglect, and his father's abandonment by helping his friends create a world of their own, a wild animal exhibit, inside an old carnival trailer called the Junglerama. When bad luck befalls the town, townspeople begin to look upon innocent but eccentric Cora Beeson as the witch who's causing it all. In a dramatic climax, the boys come to her rescue. T.J.'s narrative conveys both innocence and discovery. He begins to understand that his easygoing, confident friends have fears like his own; that his troubled family needs him; and that rumors can ostracize and even destroy an innocent person. Plot twists, well-paced action, and T.J.'s gradual maturing make this summer unforgettable. Easy, Mike and T.J. are strong, resilient characters who discover that friendship and maturity involve understanding strengths and weaknesses in themselves and others. This honest and sensitive coming-of-age novel should find eager readers. --Gerry Larson, Chewning Junior High School, Durham, N.C.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly

The closing of the meat-packing factory where T.J.'s father works is but one more piece of bad news for the people in a small Missouri town. T.J.'s parents fight so much that his father finally leaves; T.J. tries to take care of his two small sisters while his mother retreats--permanently, it seems--to her bed. T.J.'s friends have family problems, too: Easy Jack's parents died when he was young, and he lives with his drunken uncle Judd, while Mike's father is barely scraping out a living. When Judd buys a broken-down trailer for the boys, they fix it, hoping to create a traveling animal show called Junglerama. Then T.J.'s sister Cassie disappears, and the townspeople put the blame on an old woman whose habits seem based in witchcraft. It takes all three boys to save her from the mob that gathers outside her home, and the tragic events that follow are the result of human, not ghostly, hands. Grove's second book (her first was Good-bye, My Wishing Star ) again addresses the difficulties of living in the depressed economy of the Midwest, but this is a far more complicated story than her earlier one. Spinning several story lines at once, Grove depicts the boys as teenagers who try not to flinch when they are suddenly faced with adult concerns, and proves herself a fine and able storyteller. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0590431633
• ISBN 13: 9780590431637
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192