This is what I do every morning.
Lock the bathroom door. Turn on the shower. Take off my clothes. Wet my hand. Run it through my hair. Turn off the shower. Come out with a towel wrapped around my waist.
When Jack discovers that pretending to have a shower gets him out of having to have one, he decides to use his one rule – do it badly – to get out of just about everything. But Mum seems to have a solution to everything: when he breaks the broom, she gets him to sweep with a dustpan and brush, when the mophead ‘disappears’, she suggests a toothbrush; and when it’s time to wash the dog, Jack’s really in for a smelly surprise. Maybe Mum is onto his tricks.
One Rule for Jack is a funny chapter book for newly confident or emerging readers. The text is accessible and humorous, and there is illustrative support in the form of grey-scale illustrations by Craig Smith.
Any child who has tried – and failed – to trick their parents will enjoy themselves in this book.
One Rule for Jack, by Sally Morgan & Ezekiel Kwaymullina
Omnibus, 2014
ISBN 9781742990330
Available from good bookstores and online.