Jakeman


 * by Deborah Ellis

Booktalk 1**

Jake and Shoshoona live with foster parents. They have lived with many different foster parents since their mom went to jail. Today they decided to sneak out of the house to get on the bus that visits the jail four times a year. The bus is full of kids visiting their parents in jail. They figure their new foster parents might not let them visit their mom, so they had to be devious and sneaky. It’s Mother’s Day and Jake misses his mom so much! He is absolutely determined to get his mom out of jail. He found out that the governor of his state has the ability to pardon prisoners. Ever since he found out about the pardon he has been writing letters to the governor, giving him the many reasons he should parole his mom. It isn’t her fault that she is in jail anyway. Her boyfriend Rodney had drugs hidden in their house and when the police found them he lied and said they belonged to Jake’s mom. It was so unfair. Not only is Jake a letter writer he is also an artist. He has written and illustrated a comic book about a superhero named Jakeman. He spends a lot of time imagining that he is a superhero with the power to rescue his mom in jail. When Jake and Shoshoona get on the bus they are surprised that they don’t have the regular bus driver. The regular guy is nice, but the replacement driver is grumpy and mean. The trip to the jail is very long and tiring and to make things even worse Harlan the bully is on board. Harlan is one very angry guy. Harlan’s mom died in jail, and his grandma is still in jail. Harlan is determined that someone will pay for his mother’s death. They finally get to the jail. Jake and Shoshoona’s visit with their mom is heartbreaking. Then it is time to get back on the bus and make the long trip home. The mean and grumpy bus driver is not only mean and grumpy he is also a drunk, and he starts drinking on the bus. The kids decide to take over the bus and try to drive it back to the city themselves. That’s when Jake gets this really great idea. They are really close to the nursing home where the governor’s mother lives. It just happens to be Mother’s Day. The governor will be there. Jake figures now is their best chance to ask the governor in person to pardon their mom. However, their plan does not work out exactly the way they thought it would. Someone gets shot!! Who gets shot and why? Do they meet the governor? Does the governor pardon Jake’s mom? To find out the answers to these questions you must read Jakeman by Deborah Ellis


 * Booktalk** **2**

Deborah Ellis continues to bring us the stories of children who, through no fault of their own, are forced to survive under desperate circumstances. She wrote the Breadwinner trilogy about Parvana and her friend Shauzia, the Cocalero novels about the boy Diego in Bolivia, and The Heaven Shop about Binti and Junie in Malawi.

The story of Jakeman comes a little closer to home for us and tells the story of Jacob and his older sister Shoshona whose mother has been wrongly accused of drug possession and sent to a women's prison in upstate New York.

It begins with a letter Jake writes full of hope and optimism.

//Dear Mr. Governor

We learned how to write letters at school. My teacher says you can pardon people out of prison. She says a lot of things, so I checked with Rawlins, who teaches me at the Boys and Girls Club and has no reason to lie to me. He says it’s true, so could you please pardon my mother, Shanice Kiera DeShawn. She’s very nice and she didn’t do anything wrong and if she did I know she’s sorry.

Respectfully yours, Jacob Tyronne DeShawn

P.S. Write me back. Let me know when she’s coming back so I can be ready.//

Jake writes twelve other letters to the governor throughout the book. In between, the story tells of their journey on a bus full of children whose mothers and grandmothers are also in prison. It's a journey through night and day and one that they have taken many times before. It's on the Mother's Day weekend. Waiting in line for the bus, trying to stay out of the rain, the children huddle under a drugstore awning.

//The drugstore manager stormed out, waving his hands like they were on fire.

"Get away from my window! I'll call the cops!" Ms. Granite stepped out of the line and into the rain. "I'm the social worker in charge of these children." "Your children are harassing my staff and blocking my customers." Jake and Shoshona and everyone else looked toward the door. The last kid in line was at least ten feet away. No one was blocking anything. "You know we're waiting for a bus," Ms. Granite said. "We've waited here before." "And every time, there are complaints." "From whom?" The manager growled, "Just move those kids away from my store. They're scaring the customers. Your bus isn't going to drive up on the sidewalk. Wait out by the curb." "It's raining." "Is that my problem? Move it, or I'm calling the police."//

It is words like these that Jake and the other children hear from many of the other adults in the story. Everyone has written them off as incapable of becoming more than future prison inmates. The words of one of the older children named Harlan are ominous after reading the reports that are in his "official file", "We're all going to become our files."

At every turn, Jake shields himself from these harsh words with his superhero, comic book creation he calls "Jakeman". Jakeman has barbed wire that erupts from his skin when he is threatened, long legs that help him run fast and arms that grow strong when he has to fight.

However, it isn't Jakeman who comes to the rescue, when Ms. Granite and many of the children become sick with food poisoning and must be hospitalized, the driver becomes so drunk that he can't continue driving and the children "kidnap" the governor's mother. She actually comes quite willingly on their quest to confront the governor at a golf tournament.

Jakes last letter to the governor ends the story and we know just how strong Jake really is.