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Aaron R. Hawkins

Autor(a) de The Year Money Grew on Trees

2 Works 118 Membros 10 Reviews

Obras de Aaron R. Hawkins

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Jackson Jones has struck a deal with the cranky lady next door - he will tend her overgrown apple orchard this year and if he can turn a profit of over $8,000 it will be his. He doesn't know the first thing about growing apples, pruning trees, or how to irrigate the field - he does know that $8,000 means a whole lot of apples and that he's in for a whole lot of work. He enlists the help of his siblings and cousins, at a price of course, to help him turn an unfair contract into the apple orchard of his newly formed dreams.

A fun book that really emphasizes the need for hard work, I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I would (the old cover is not appealing in the least). The good guys win, though it takes sweat, brains, and a little help from their friends to make it happen.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
agrudzien | outras 9 resenhas | Aug 25, 2012 |
Jackson begrudingly takes over an apple orchard from neighbor, mean Mrs. Nelson, in order to not have to work at a scrap yard. Through his wittiness, cunning and determination he has a summer he never expected, while learning the true value of money and what it means to be responsible.
 
Marcado
smheatherly2 | outras 9 resenhas | Jul 25, 2012 |
Jackson makes a deal with his strange neighbor that he will take over the running of her apple orchard, give her the firs $8000 in profits, and will receive the deed to the land. His alternative is working in a scrap metal year, so he jumps at the opportunity. While keeping the contract a secret, he has to figure out how to make a profit from the orchard. The school librarian in this book is nasty - BOO! But the story is suprisingly absorbing. I learned a bit about farming along with Jackson and his siblings and cousins. And really enjoyed the ingenuity and hard work demonstrated by the kids! They were given a lot of freedom by their folks to try out this experiment. It is set in the 80s and even captured things like taping favorite songs from the radio for repeated listening.… (mais)
 
Marcado
ewyatt | outras 9 resenhas | Jul 13, 2012 |
Recommended Ages: Gr. 5-8

Plot Summary: Jackson is faced with a decision that must be made quickly: spend the summer working for bullies at the junkyard, or agree to Mrs. Nelson's crazy plan. He trusts his gut and chooses the nine months of hard work in the apple orchard in front of his house. His goal is to sell enough apples at the end of the season to pay Mrs. Nelson $8000. Anything over would go to him. If he does it, he also gets ownership of the land, according to the contract they quickly wrote and signed. Knowing he can't do it alone, he goes to the scary school library and checks out a book, takes the best notes he's ever taken, and recruits help: his cousins who live next door and his sisters. Together, the five of them spend February through November in the orchard, working hard, all with the risk of not making any money. As the final selling day approaches, Jackson worries about selling enough apples, and what his crew is going to say when he finally tells them about the deal he made with Mrs. Nelson.

Setting: small town near Navajo reservation, New Mexico, 1982

Characters:
Jackson Jones - 8th grade, very mature for his age, hard working, willing to try new things, always seemed to know the right thing to say and the right questions to ask, trusted his gut to make decisions which were always right, struggled with it but at the same time made the whole process seem relatively easy
Mrs. Nelson - old neighbor who lives next door to Jackson, hard to figure her out because she switches from grumpy to nice and back again, seems to change her mind often, oblivious to fine details and frequently changes her mind, moody, doesn't have answers
Tommy Nelson - Mrs. Nelson's adult son who never liked working in the orchard with his dad, doesn't like dealing with his mom's attitude and threats about dying from cancer within the year when she has had cancer lots of times, stops by to check the progress occasionally but doesn't get too involved until the end
Mr. Palmer - lawyer who reluctantly wrote up the document with the agreement between Jackson and Mrs. Nelson
Amy - 9th grade (last year before high school), Jackson's oldest cousin who lived next door, 4 months older than Jackson but a year ahead in school, was worried about what her friends would think but was very devoted
Sam - 11 y/o, Jackson's cousin who lived next door, "energetic puppy", was willing to work without money, enjoyed driving the tractor
Michael - 9 y/o, Jackson's cousin who lived next door, considered a loner,
Lisa - 10 y/o, more worried about homework so only worked on weekends, was in charge of the money
Jennifer - 8 y/o, did what her sister did
Jerry Wheeler - worked on the dairy farm nearby and was willing to give them free manure in exchange for some conversation and apples at the end of the season
Brother Brown - Jackson's Sunday school teacher who gave very boring and impersonal lectures, didn't seem to reach out to anyone but reluctantly answered Jackson's questions, showed Jackson how to water
Jackson's dad - strongly believes in the value of hard work, wanted Jackson to work at the junkyard under a bunch of bullies, unaware of what was going on with the orchard--both the day to day and overall deal, offered little help and assistance except for occasionally, for example when he hooked up the worm sprayer to the tractor, seemed immature and rude, didn't ever had a positive interaction with his wife
Jackson's mom - unaware of the details and the overall deal with the apple orchard, discouraged Jackson occasionally to stop especially at the end when he wasn't getting sleep
Jackson's Uncle - helped rarely, enjoyed teasing the kids about how to start the tractor, much to Jackson's mom's dismay when Sam ran into one of their broken down cars

Recurring Themes: apple, orchard, farming, hard work, family, cousins, neighbors, small town, religious instruction, tractor

Controversial Issues:
pg 128 - gypped

Personal Thoughts: i have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, I enjoyed it enough to read it all in one night, but on the other hand, I find it to be very unrealistic. It had decent amount of character development, yet the entire book was purely about what it takes to take care of 300 apple trees, complete with math lessons and diagrams. Somehow the author balanced it so it didn't seem too much like a non-fiction book even with all of the descriptions of what it takes to run an apple orchard. Yet the characters seems entirely too unrealistic. For someone with obnoxious parents such as Jackson, he seems way too mature to be able to pull off something like this. He never seemed to do anything wrong, and he always had the right questions to ask and he figured out where to get the information. I'm surprised his parents weren't more pushy in finding out more details, or getting more involved considering his mom was a stay-at-home mom. I'm on the fence on this one.

Genre: historical fiction (1982)

Pacing: medium -- I read it in one day, but there isn't too much action. Everything is about the apples.
Characters: Easy to figure out except for Mrs. Nelson who changes too often and is too mysterious even though she's not trying to be, and Brother Brown who wasn't a very good representative of the church
Frame: Everything explained in great detail, including math (twice, once in paragraph form and once with equations) and drawings
Storyline:

Activity:
… (mais)
 
Marcado
pigeonlover | outras 9 resenhas | Dec 15, 2011 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
2
Membros
118
Popularidade
#167,490
Avaliação
4.2
Resenhas
10
ISBNs
6

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