bridget

"The Boy in the Burning House" by Tim Wynne Jones

A Review by Bridget

Summary- Set in modern day Ontario, this books examines how children’s lives are forever changed by the loss of their fathers. Fourteen-year-old Jim Hawkins and his mother have been trying to hang onto the family farm after the mysterious disappearance of Jim’s father two years ago. Ruth Rose, a sixteen-year-old girl who’s always dressed in black, is considered a misfit by Father Fisher, her stepfather. Father Fisher’s job is to save souls but Ruth Rose claims he’s a murderer. Together Jim and Ruth Rose uncover old secrets and reveal the truth.

Suspense - This is a mystery book, full of suspense, twists and turns, and many surprises. Jim, a fourteen-year-old boy, becomes a detective. He’s led to the case by the clues provided by Ruth Rose, the sixteen-year-old misfit. Their lives are in danger when a man responsible for murder realizes they are uncovering the truth about his crimes. Who’d suspect the local Minister?

Character Development - People say this book is part mystery and part psychological thriller. The main adolescent characters are hurt and grieving. I think Ruth Rose was the most complicated character. Early in the book, she seemed to be a different person each day. I’m not sure if this happens when people are on Diazepam or whether it showed her feelings of desperation. She really wanted Jim to believe that she was telling the truth.

Important Lessons - Tim Wynne-Jones believes children should read for personal enjoyment. I don’t think he fills his books with lessons. He does make sure we understand the characters featured in his books, and why they might do the things they do. For example, was Ruth Rose a misfit or a victim of a bad family situation? Do people hide bad things behind good deeds? Perhaps some readers might consider these are the lessons of the book.

Imagination - Tim Wynne-Jones studied as an artist so he’s very good at painting pictures for the reader. It makes it easy to see the characters, and the settings in which they live, work and play. For example, I can picture the apartment inside Jim’s house where they went to hide from Father Fisher, the office of the local newspaper, The Expositor, and Father Fisher’s Godmobile. The book was full of his rich imagination. He made me laugh aloud.

Difficulty - This book was easy to follow. There was only one spot where I got confused, and that was trying to understand why Father Fisher was so desperate to retrieve the letter from Laverne Roncelier. That letter told the truth about Francis’s death. There were some words that I hadn’t seen in print before, but not too many. Also, I learned from researching information about the author that Tim Wynne-Jones likes to use unusual words.

Overall Recommendation - An entertaining, edge-of-your-seat read!

AUTHOR REPORT -
            Elementary students may remember Tim Wynne-Jones as the author of the Zoom trilogy, a picture book series for children. When I met him at the Canadian Children’s Literature conference in St. John’s last fall, he had just written The Boy in the Burning House.
           Wynne-Jones has written twenty-two books, including picture books and fiction for children and young adults, a dozen radio plays, the book and libretto for an opera, and lots of short stories and songs. He has won numerous awards for his writing including two Governor General’s Literary Awards for Children’s Literature, the IODE Book Award, the Ruth Schwartz Book Award, the Book of the Year Award from the Canadian Library Association, and the Seal First Novel Award.
           The author was born in Cheshire, England. His family moved to Canada when he was a young child. He graduated from York University with a master’s degree in visual arts. Wynne-Jones lives on a 76-acre farm of rock and pine trees near Perth, Ontario. He shares the farm with writer and artist Amanda Lewis, their three children, and many cats.
            Tim Wynne-Jones has a passion for stories, collects lots of odd stories from newspapers (which prompted the writing of The Boy in the Burning House), and is fascinated by unusual English words. Reading meant a lot to him growing up. He wonders if kids today develop the same relationship with books. “ Books don’t mean much in our society . . . I hope books are still around to inform and entertain people down the pike when the batteries for the video games die.”

Tim Wynne Jones More Info

Bridget is a Grade 5 student at St. Bonaventure’s College. When she was a little girl, she was a big fan of Wynne-Jones’ trilogy about the adventures of Zoom the cat. Today she’s an ardent reader of nonfiction, devouring any books she finds about horses, cats, dogs, and art and crafts.