Hi guys, Julia here,
This week I am writing about another one of my author study books by
Paul Jennings. The books is a short story called Smart Ice Cream and it is found in the larger book Unreal!
The book was basically about the main character who breaks into an ice
cream van and eats ‘smart’ ice cream leaving him waking up ‘dumb.’ It is very
short but also extremely funny and well written.
Jennings uses great imagery. For example he introduces the main
character saying:
‘Every year I win a lot of prizes: top of the class, top of the school,
stuff like that.’
This phrase using the verb win
and adjective a lot make the reader
imagine someone that is smart. However it is not until the text reads on and
more information is revealed that the reader can start to recognise the main
character is in fact not only intelligent but obnoxious and rude too!
The book is clever in the way that is has a sly coda which according to
Gamble and Yates basically shows how characters have changed or what they’ve
learnt. In this story the ending (where the main character wakes up ‘dumb’) is
Jennings way of incorporating a coda. Jennings last paragraph is written with
poor grammar showing the reader that the character has been punished for his actions.
It light-hearted coda but it does convey that there are consequences for actions.
This short story was magnificent and would work great in the classroom! It
has great imagery and themes and is appealing to young people.
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