Jesper Jinx and the Sneezing Season Book Review

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Jesper Jinx and the Sneezing Season

JESPER JINX AND THE SNEEZING SEASON BOOK REVIEW

Jesper Jinx and the Sneezing Season is the Second Middle Grade Chapter book from Finnish born author Marko Kitti.  His debut novel in English is book one in this series Jesper Jinx.  He has been writing fiction since 2001 and has 5 published works in Finland including one which was shortlisted for the Runeberg Prize in 2009.  I received a free ebook version of the story to facilitate this review.  I only review books that are a good fit for my family and that I think might be a good fit for my readers.

My Review:       

Jesper Jinx is back again in book 2 called Jesper Jinx and the Sneezing Season.  Jesper is the eleven year old boy who has eleven year old things on his mind.  Mainly, how to cause mischief for his sister, Melinda, day dreaming about his future not yet girlfriend, Chloe and performing boredom busters with his best pal, Oliver.  As in the first book there is a unique relationship between the character Jesper and the writer of his stories.  The writer, or scribbler as he is called by Jesper, lives in Puffington Hill with him and gets front row seats to Jesper’s stories but only if he promises not to publish his stories.  Book 2 continues in its hilarity as we follow Jesper through his everyday life.

In book 2 we are introduced to a girl, Chloe, who Jesper believes is the most beautiful girl in the universe and his future girlfriend even though she doesn’t know that yet.  In the first chapter we follow Jesper as he tries desperately to perform a chivalric act for Chloe only to have his efforts thwarted.  I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for Jesper as his good deed ended up in a mishap as it was just pure bad luck.  Jesper’s life seems to be one misadventure after another.  Some of own his own doing and some, well, bad luck just seems to follow him around.

The chapter of which the title of the book is named is another adventure where Jesper meets disaster. There is a competition to win a 50 pound note if someone can capture a rare purple buzzard in a award winning photo.  Jesper’s family make it into a outdoor family adventure.  One funny moment is when Jesper’s mom plays tricks on everyone by getting them to run around claiming she saw the bird.    Even moms can have some fun.  In the end Jesper finds the rare bird and initially gets a shot of it but because of a world breaking sneeze he loses the picture.  A funny twist is found in the following chapter told by Rosie the Squirrel who lets us in on the whole set up with the purple buzzard.  Also of note in this chapter are the illustrations; particularly, the cute baby photo of Jesper on the potty and the picture of the sneeze heard around the world.  In the end Jesper’s efforts are thwarted but this time it was his own doing with a little help from a squirrel.

My favourite chapter is the diary wars with his sister Melinda.  First, Jesper and his friend Oliver enact one of their famous boredom busters on Melinda.  Jesper should have known his sister would pay him back some how.  She does so by reading his diary where he has professed in writing what he thinks about Chloe.  Melinda then uses that info to send Jesper down a path of his own embarrassment.  I found this chapter ties everything together nicely with Chloe and it also restored my faith that good things will happen to even the most accident, mishap, disaster prone people of the world.  Jesper would be able to check off one of the items from his top secret bucket list.

In regards to the relationship between Chloe and Jesper I would have preferred if the author had expanded Jesper’s reasons for liking her to include more then just the superficial reason of her looks.  In his diary the focus was only on her eyes and hair which I find stereotypical.  After reading the last chapter I found Chloe to have many other desirable qualities.  A skilled reader might pick up on these but I’m not too sure about younger less experienced reader.  If the book is read as a read aloud then a teacher or parent could discuss in more detail.  In the end Jesper is happy to just go on a date with Chloe even though she is now bald.  This made me very happy because I was worried that Jesper would respond in a negative superficial manner, but he didn’t.  I enjoyed this twist of Jesper’s character because it means the author is building a more complex character.

There is a lot going on in Jesper’s life.  It is not an easy time for kids in their preteen years.  Jesper is becoming an enduring character who you know will have funny, interesting stories as he navigates the tumultuous years of preteen life.  The scribbler and Puffington Hill have more to look forward too.   And if you sign the contract (you will find in the book) which is an absolute must, you too can take part in the many misadventures and antics of Jesper Jinx.

For more information on Jesper Jinx visit his website www.jesperjinx.com
For more information about the Author Marko Kitti visit his website www.markokitti.net
If you like twitter Marko Kitti can also be found there www.twitter.com/markokitti

I also reviewed the first book in the Jesper Jinx Series.  It is always good to start at the beginning.  You can begin here.

Cheers,
Bonnie