The Several Lives of Orphan Jack

Starred review from August 11, 2003
Told with the outsize zest of a tall tale, this vibrant, well-crafted novel starts strong and gets even better. Raised in the Opportunities School for Orphans, the plucky and resilient Jack gets a chance to prove himself as he turns 12, when he is outfitted with an apprenticeship (and his first pair of long pants). First, though, in this tale's characteristic balance of wit and poignancy, he trains the new scullery boy to avoid beatings from the cook ("The secret is to make Cook go sad.... He cries. Huge big tears.... Then he sits in his chair and goes to sleep"). But when Jack's job with a bookkeeper disappoints (he imagines he'll be "sitting at the door in a tidy uniform, keeping the books safe, dry and warm"), he decides to take his luck on the road, armed with little more than his ragged, incomplete dictionary ("A sunrise was better when you knew the word sublime," he believes). In a clever twist, Jack sets himself up at a town fair as a vendor of "thoughts, concepts, plans, opinions, impressions, notions and fancies," and bored villagers snap up his product. Ellis (Out of the Blue) sends a timeless message—about the values of believing in one's own visions, of a positive outlook and similar—and the details she uses are fresh and fun, her language supple and refined. Readers will want to tag along with Jack on his several adventures. Final artwork not seen by PW. Ages 7-10.

December 1, 2003
Gr 3-6-Otherjack is an orphan, so named because another resident at the Opportunities School for Orphans and Foundlings has already claimed the moniker. The boy had 12 years of avoiding floggings and had "melted away from trouble." When Otherjack's "opportunity" arises, he leaves school for the real world, in which many adventures await. The lad, who carries around a battered dictionary and whose passion is language, becomes a bookkeeper's apprentice ("Scholars and scoundrels. Volumes and villains. That will be my life," he thinks). Unhappy, he leaves, and after a series of adventures and misadventures, his true calling becomes clear: he is an "ideas peddler," selling whims, hunches, promises, and intuitions. Finally, he has found success at doing what he does best, and prepares for a life on the road. While the story is slight, there is real strength in Ellis's turns of phrase ("She was so full of herself that she hadn't no room for one more thought"), use of imagery, and alliteration, and in showing readers the power of words and ideas to liberate the imagination.-Sharon Korbeck, Waupaca Area Public Library, WI

Copyright 2003 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from December 1, 2003
Gr. 3-6. Jack lives at the Opportunities School for Orphans, where his most cherished possession is a battered dictionary, with the B section missing. When he learns that he will be apprenticed to a firm of bookkeepers, he's ecstatic; he thinks he'll be protecting books. But when the job turns out to be adding numbers ("sums, sameness, and scorn is the life of a Ledger lad"), he takes off, making a detour at a fair, where everything changes after he spontaneously tells a woman that he sells "whims." Soon the somber townsfolk are not only paying for Jack's whims (by gluing little pieces of metal to the soles of your shoes, you can makes music when you dance) but also his concepts, plans, opinions, notions, and fancies. Ellis has created a small gem here, with messages about following your heart tucked into the sentences, phrases, thoughts, and ideas that she seamlessly weaves together. By ingeniously ending each chapter with Jack's dictionary words describing each new circumstance ("boldness and bundles . . . that's the life of an ex-bookkeeper"), she threads a ribbon through the book that sews together both the joy of language and the vicissitudes of a life of possibilities. St-Aubin's ink-and-wash pictures are not always up to the text, but his jaunty cover art will draw in readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)