The Several Lives of Orphan Jack

By Sarah Ellis and Bruno St-Aubin

Winner of the Mr. Christie's Book Award and the IODE Violet Downey Book Award

For young Jack, life is tough at the Opportunities School for Orphans. But Jack is good at staying out of trouble. He has skipped over trouble, danced around trouble, slid under trouble, melted away from trouble, talked his way out of trouble and slipped between two close troubles like a cat through a picket fence.

When Jack turns twelve, he is given the biggest opportunity of all, but suddenly his life is nothing but trouble. Still, he is a clever and resilient boy, and eventually he makes his way into the big world. Jack is rich in ideas, and soon he finds there is a place for an enterprising boy who has whims, concepts, plans, opinions, impressions, notions and fancies to spare.

In the tradition of Natalie Babbitt, Sarah Ellis brings her quirky sense of humor and imagination to bear in this witty, warm fable. Bruno St-Aubin's evocative black-and-white illustrations capture perfectly the dreadful Schoolmaster Bane, the crowlike accountant Mr. Ledger, Lou the skinny bun merchant, and Christabel, the miller's little daughter.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Groundwood Books
• Release date: Sep 1, 2003
• ISBN: 9781554982691

Sarah Ellis

SARAH ELLIS is a celebrated author, teacher and children’s literature expert. She has written more than twenty books across the genres, and her books have been translated into French, Spanish, Danish, Chinese and Japanese. She has won the Governor General’s Literary Award (Pick-Up Sticks) and the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award (Odd Man Out). Sarah is a masthead reviewer for the Horn Book Magazine, and she is a former faculty member of Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

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Text copyright © 2003 by Sarah Ellis

Illustrations copyright © 2003 by Bruno St-Aubin

Published in Canada and the USA in 2012 by Groundwood Books

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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This edition published in 2012 by

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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Ellis, Sarah

The several lives of Orphan Jack / by Sarah Ellis; pictures by Bruno St-Aubin.

eISBN 978-1-55498-269-1

I. St-Aubin, Bruno II. Title.

PS8559.L57S49 2003     jC813’.54     C2003-901284-0

PZ7

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We acknowledge for their financial support of our publishing program the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF).

For Mike and Chris

Be tramps.

— THE MOUSE AND HIS CHILD

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Chapter One

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GENTLEMEN!

Schoolmaster Bane slapped his pointer down on his desk and barked out a question. What is the purpose of snow?

The question floated out into the dead air of the classroom and over the bowed heads of the boys. Then it gave up hope and began to sink toward the floor.

Edwin!

Edwin heaved himself out of his desk and stood in the aisle. An answer surfaced in his head, and he gave it with a sure sense of defeat. Edwin had answers, but they were never the right answers.

Snowballs, sir?

Slap! The desk took another lashing from the pointer.

No, you scurvy lump of a semiwitted ne’er-do-well. Sit! Hugo!

A bullet of chalk whizzed down the aisle and connected with the ear of the dozing Hugo.

Ow! Zanzibar, sir? Once, long ago, Hugo had been right with the answer Zanzibar, and he lived in hope of repeating his victory.

No, you booby-brained mutton-head. Otherjack!

Otherjack stood up. Two roads lay before him and both led to trouble. Give the wrong answer and Mr. Bane might reach the end of his rope and get out the strap. Mr. Bane had a very short rope. Answer the question correctly and Edwin, the late-night basher, would get him after dark.

Ah, well, Otherjack said to himself. Better the trouble that lies around the corner than the trouble staring you in the face.

The purpose of snow is to keep plants warm in winter and to brighten our gloomy evenings, sir.

Correct. Mr. Bane sounded disappointed. He turned his pale blue eyes to the book in his hand, Little Truths for the Instruction of Boys.

What is the purpose of…

A timid knock at the door saved the boys from further little truths.

Enter!

A small warty boy put his head around the door. Otherjack to Dr. Keen, sir.

1.eps

Otherjack stood up looking calm as a pudding.

Breathing stopped all over the room. A summons to the headmaster could cause many a stomach to come loose from its moorings.

Otherjack’s friend Marcus, sitting in the

Reviews for The Several Lives of Orphan Jack

[brittanygean · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Grades 3-6. Jack, or Otherjack (as there was already a boy named Jack) spent the first twelve year of his life avoiding trouble and floggings at all costs.In fact, he "skipped over trouble, danced over trouble, slid under trouble, melted away from trouble, talked his way out of trouble and slipped between two close troubles like a cat through a picket fence (pg. 16)". One day Jack is called into the schoolmaster's office and is told that he has been given the opportunity to apprentice as a bookkeeper. He is so excited! At least, until he can't keep the columns neat or get the numbers to add. To escape the tough life at the Opportunities School for Orphans and Foundlings, Jack runs away with his favorite dictionary in tow.This charming children's chapter book is a winner of the IODE Violet Downey award. Jack is a aimable character whose love for words and dictionaries allows for clever ways to introduce new and bigger words to young readers. A cute and fun read.

[francescadefreitas · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed the style of this story - Jack is an orphan, and is delighted to hear he will be apprenticed to a bookkeeper - how wonderful to be responsible for protecting books! The book is full of patterns, wordplay, and fun. It reads aloud very well.