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Title: Ordinary Jack (Isis Large Print for Children Windrush) by Helen Cresswell, Jill Bennett ISBN: 1-85089-919-3 Publisher: ABC-CLIO Pub. Date: November, 1987 Format: Hardcover List Price(USD): $14.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (3 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: VIVA Bagthorpes!
Comment: How COULD they have stop printing these books? I have loved the Bagthorpes since I first got Ordinary Jack as a kid and wanted to get the Bagthorpe series for my niece and friends who are having children. Even though I was labeled "gifted" as a child, Jack is readily identifiable and the books are written with such a gentle humor that they are well worth fighting for.

Really, are we supposed to let "Sweet Valley High" set the tone for our pre-adolescents?

Rating: 5
Summary: The first in a hilarious series
Comment: 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.

Rating: 4
Summary: This whole series is terrific for both kids and adults
Comment: 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.