The Jacket

Amazon.com Review:
After wrongly accusing a boy--an African American boy—of stealing his brother's jacket, Phil--a white boy--has some hard thinking to do. And a tough question for his mom: "How come you never told me I was prejudiced?" This seemingly small school incident turns into a painful, but ultimately satisfying, learning opportunity for the sixth grader, as he explores the myriad influences in his life and the way his thought patterns have formed... and finds a new friend in the process. The intellectual evolution Phil goes through may be somewhat facile for a child his age, but Andrew Clements's message will undoubtedly hit home for many readers. This is exactly the kind of situation that arises every day in schools (and offices and buses) all over the world. Clements is the author of many highly acclaimed children's books, including The Janitor's Boy and Frindle. (Ages 8 to 12) --Emilie Coulter

the greatest book ever:
the story i am going to tell you about is,The Jacket. the genre is relistic ficsion. the setting of this book is at the school and home. the problem is that phil thought that danial stole his brodhers jacket. first,phil and his brother go on a bus. then phils brother ran to class,he forgot his jacket and his lunch money. then phil was walking down the hallway, when he saw a black kid wearing his brothers jacket. so phil ran up to the kid and said"hey thats my brother's jacket. then phil grabbed the kid by the jacket. then the kid said" who are you,let go of me.then the teacher came and sended them to the prinsiple's office. the prinsipl said"dannial?phill? wut is the reason for this?dannial you first. then dannial said" well i was walking dowd the hall, talking with my friends when this kid comes up to me and grabs me by my jacket. the prinsiple said"now your turn phil. phill said" well me and my brother were coming to school,my brother ran off and forgot his lunch money,and i was going to give it to him,when i saw this kid wearing my brother's jacket. dannial said"liar this is my jacket. his fists redey to punch.the prinsipal said" boys stop, phil continue. phil said" well that is my jacket, look yourself it says ricci de roma . so the principal looked at the jaket and it said ricci de roma. so the principal said"well your both right,ill go call dannial's mom. so she went to call her. dannials mom said"the jacket wasgiven by dannial's grandmother. so the principal told dannial and phil wut her mom said. so the principal told them to leave, it's over. so they left. I liked the part when phil grabbed the dannial by the jacket. I disliked the part when the teacher stoped the fight. this is what my story is all about.

Unintentional Racism:
Phil, a sixth-grader, is running late. He is trying to find his little brother, who forgot his lunch money, before class starts. When he runs down the hall, he sees the back of his brother's jacket, but when he grabs it, it is not his brother wearing it. It is a black kid who Phil accuses of stealing his brother's unique jacket. The two boys are sent to the principal's office to sort out their argument, and there they find out that the jacket the black boy, Daniel, is wearing is the one that used to belong to Phil's brother. Phil's mother gave the jacket to her cleaning lady and she gave the jacket to her grandson, Daniel. When Daniel finds out that the jacket was given to his grandmother by Phil's mother, he is angry and throws it on the ground. This incident starts a journey of self-discovery for Phil, who is suddenly very conscious of white and black. He wonders if he would have reacted the same way if Daniel had been white, and he worries that he might be prejudiced without even realizing it. He journey takes him to Daniel's house where he goes to return the jacket and apologize, and he is surprised by what he finds out about black neighborhoods and about himself. I liked how Phil was so distraught about the thought that he might be prejudiced, even though his parents kept telling him that it was no big deal. It was sad, though, to read about a kid going through a kind of crisis like Phil and not having anyone to help him out.

Underwhelming:
Phil sees a kid with his brother's jacket on and accuses the younger boy of stealing it. It turns out that Phil's mother gave it to her cleaning lady who gave it to her grandson (the kid). Phil then freaks out and thinks he thought the jacket was stolen because the kid was African-American (even though it was weird, because it was a fairly distinctive Italian jacket, so the race card seems a bit forced in this case). It deals with the issues well for the intended age range, but I wanted a little more character development-- for Clements, it left me a bit underwhelmed.

The Jacket is a cool book:
it was a pretty good book. But, I think the story could have used some action in it. This review was provided by 10 year old my son.

My Best Book Report:
The story I am going to talk about is The Jacket. The genre of this book is Realistic Fiction. The setting is at school and at home. The problem is that Phil thought that Daniel stole his brothers jacket. Phil was white and daniel was black. Daniels grandma worked at Phil's house. At, Phil's street there weren't any black people and at Daniel Street there were not that many white. The theme is that Daniel had the jacket and Phil thought it was his brother's. I didn't like that Phil grabbed Daniel's collar and scream at him. I liked that Phil understood that he was wrong. This is what my story was about.