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1.0 out of 5 stars
Ordinary Jack, Nov 30 2009
I did not enjoy this book at at all. It was not an interesting read and I did not like any of the characters emotions and I don't think that someone can predict what is going to happen. Also, a 60 year old man is not going to help an 11 year old child on predicting what will happen in the future by paying people to dress up as brown bears and ride in a hot air balloon that cost 1500 pounds, just so he can make his nephew happy. I also don't think a cat can live for 90 years especially with a senile 90 year old woman saying that it can. I did not want to read any of the other books in the series.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
The first in a hilarious series, April 18 2001
If P.G. Wodehouse had been writing novels for young readers during the last quarter of the 20th century, he might have come up with something like "Ordinary Jack," the first in Helen Cresswell's series The Bagthorpe Saga. Jack, a hopelessly conventional and normal boy stuck in the middle of the madcap, eccentric Bagthorpe family, known for their prodigious achievements, wonders how he can ever get himself noticed. Uncle Parker, not so brilliant himself, sympathizes and comes up with a plan: Jack will become a prophet and go in for such mystical pursuits as visions, water divining, crystal-ball gazing and Tarot-card reading. Of course, all sorts of complications and much hilarity ensue. This very funny book and its six sequels can be found in British paperback editions and ordered from Amazon.co.uk.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
This whole series is terrific for both kids and adults, Feb 9 2000
By A Customer
I'm surprised this series was allowed to go out of print here....I think it's still available in England and maybe elsewhere.The first book seems slightly different from and even inconsistent with the rest, maybe because the author hadn't developed the characters fully yet. However, it's still as good-it's hard to say which are the best, they're all great. The Bagthorpes are an eccentric family of geniuses-make that genii-except for Jack, who is incurably ordinary. In the first book he causes a lot of trouble by trying to get noticed; in the others he mostly lets the rest of the family wreak their own havoc, and they do very well. There's Grandma, the trouble-making matriarch who cheats at very game she plays; dreamily poetic Aunt Celia, who's never quite of this world; Celia's daughter Daisy, who is allowed to set fires, write on the walls, and conspire with her imaginary friend Arry Awk; and Mr. Bagthorpe, the bitter, tormented television script writer. The things they survive (including Fire and Flood and a Haunted House) make for hilarious reading, not to mention lots of great quotes. The tone of the books is a delightful combination of endlessly droll and deadpan/detached.
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