Jump Cut

by Ted Staunton Narrated by Mike Spring

Overview

Spencer loves movies, but real life is boring, right? When his late grandfather's will reveals the tasks he wants his grandsons to undertake, Spencer thinks he got screwed. He's not going to France or Spain or Africa. He's not even getting a cool tattoo, like his younger brother. No, he's going to Buffalo to get a kiss from an ancient movie star. Gross. And he's supposed to film it. Grosser. But Spencer hasn't bargained on Gloria Lorraine, star of the silver screen back in the day. Gloria has big plans-plans that involve her granddaughter AmberLea, a gun, a baker who might be a gangster, some real gangsters and a road trip to Nowheresville, Ontario. After being shot at, jumping into an icy lake and confronting some angry bikers, Spencer finally realizes that real life can be as exciting (and dangerous) as reel life.


Spencer's adventures start in Speed, part of The Seven Prequels and continue in Coda, part of The Seven Sequels.

Editorial Reviews

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"The dialogue is very amusing, sharp and revealing of character...This intriguing series will appeal to both boys and girls at the junior high level."

Back to Books blog

"Exciting and good fun...It's wonderful to read a book where you love all the characters and here I certainly did, right down to the dog."

YALSA Teens' Top Ten Galley Review

"An inspirational story of tying up loose ends even when it might seem that it's too late."

TriState YA Book Review Committee

"This madcap adventure will appeal to those readers who like action novels, mob related novels, or road trip novels. A first class read about loyalty, first love and how life can imitate film... Strongly recommended for middle and high school libraries. Easy to read vocabulary with nonstop action, adventure and humor."

CanLit for LittleCanadians blog

"If Jump Cut were a movie, and it would make a fantastic film, it would an action thriller with a quirky cast and many surprises, and the audience would be relentlessly sitting on the edge of their seats and falling back with belly laughs. Ted Staunton's sense of humour is divine, especially when verbalized by the indomitable Gloria Lorraine...Jump Cut has the eccentric elements of a cult classic. But, I suspect, that Jump Cut and all the other books in Orca's Seven (the series) will definitely stay in the mainstream for a long time with their popularity ensuring their status as classics."

CM Magazine

"Staunton offers plenty of action, intrigue, and well-placed humour. The way the story intertwines with Spencer's younger brother's journey adds further interest and keeps readers guessing to the end. The film allusions throughout are clever and appropriate, and the cast of characters is both interesting and convincing...Readers will thoroughly enjoy Jump Cut on its own or as part of this unique new series. Highly Recommended."

NJ Youth Services

"[The] adventures are exciting and readers will be anxious to pick up the next book in the series. Great for middle grade boys who want realistic fiction with action and suspense."

School Library Journal

Gr 6–9—In Staunton's plot-driven hi/lo story, readers travel with Spencer as he fulfills his grandfather's last wish that the teen get a kiss from the old man's all-time favorite movie star and film it. When he arrives at a nursing home, Gloria Lorraine drags him on a harrowing road trip that involves mobsters and white powder. The action moves fast, and although Spencer is a sweet kid, there is little character development; readers may have a hard time caring about him and his adventures. Some of the story is told in screenplay, some in prose. Ink Me picks up where Jump Cut leaves off, told from Spencer's younger brother's point of view. Grandpa's dying wish was for Bunny to get a tattoo. It has a gang affiliation, and Bunny ends up running from the police after they think he is selling guns. He is eventually arrested and finds out that his tattoo was meant for someone else. When writing a book for students who have a hard time reading, it's not a good strategy for authors to pretend they can't spell or use correct grammar: "I walkd past places that fixd cars and places that sold candy and places that I don't know what they did and places that dint do any thing cuz of the bords in the windo." Because the writing is so distracting, this book can't be recommended for anyone.—Pamela Schembri, Newburgh Enlarged City Schools, NY

Kirkus Reviews

Grandfather's will sends a 17-year-old boy on a zany adventure. Unlike his brother and male cousins, Spencer is not athletic or adventurous. Instead, he's rather timid, a watcher rather than a doer. That all changes after the reading of his grandfather's remarkable will, which sends Spencer on a quest to find and get a kiss on the cheek from an aging B-movie actress named Gloria Lorraine. Turns out that Gloria has a larger-than-life theatrical personality, a bulldozer-strong will and an agenda of her own. In the sometimes hard-to-get-a-grip-on madcap adventure that follows, Spencer and Gloria pick up Gloria's granddaughter, AmberLea (who is under house arrest), and discover that the thumping coming from the back of their "borrowed" Cadillac is being caused by an armed thug and cannoli baker who is tied up in the trunk. In the course of the story, Spencer tangles with Mafia toughs and motorcycle gang members, finding maturity, smarts and personal strength in the process. Like much of the novel, the wingding climax is funny, inventive and hard to follow. The author makes some inexplicable choices affecting reader comprehension. For example, do the two men in Gloria's young life really need to be named Danny and Davey? Muddled but entertaining story with a heart of gold. (Fiction. 10-14)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175010658
Publisher:	Orca Book Publishers
Publication date:	10/01/2014
Series:	Seven , #3
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

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