Books with title Jack and Jake

"Exploding the tom cat was, as I recollect, mostly Edward’s idea; unfortunately, it was Papa’s dynamite."This a rough book, about a rough era, the roaring '20s, in a rough place, the newly created state of Arizona.Jake Smith is an orphan, raised by his Grandfather, also named Jake, the town constable of Superior, Arizona. The tale takes him from his Sophomore year of high school, through a summer ranch job and back into his junior year.During that six months Jake meets gamblers, and cattle rustlers, poets and cowhands, ranch cooks and mining magnates.“I spun around and found myself looking down the double barrels of a sawed off shotgun held in the meaty hands of my hard case. Let me tell you. When you’re looking straight at them, the barrels of a .12 gauge look about as big as a couple of field artillery pieces.”He learns how to repair fences, and fish with dynamite; gets himself a mangy old dog, and a darn smart girl; finds and loses a fortune; and earns a practically brand new watch.He also learns how to cook. Southwestern food figures a lot in the book, and some of the recipes are included. Try them, it’s good eats.“The food was a darn site better than I usually got and I wasn’t going to waste the opportunity. Dessert was dried apple pie with coffee. I had seconds on that too, and would have gone for thirds if I could have figured out how to fit it in. Manny did grab himself a third piece of pie but I don’t think his heart was in it. He just sort of picked at it for a while, though he did carry in his hand what was left.”Mostly, the stories are true, as told to me by the old folks, though some are twisted around a bit, and a few are downright stretchers. But then, that’s what writing a book is about, isn’t it; getting to tell a few whoppers?I hope you enjoy the reading as much as I did the writing.

James Caldwell has just graduated from high school. An only child, his parents indulge his every whim; his graduation gift is a red Corvette convertible. Their expectations are that, after college, James will return to Grangerville, a small Illinois town, and work in the printing business which his father has dedicated his life to building, and which is to be his son’s heritage. He should be enthusiastic about his good fortune but, more than anything, James, who has never been further from home than a lake, thirty miles distant, where he and his dad sometimes go fishing, wants get out of this humdrum town. His dream is to become a foreign correspondent and travel the world. A couple of weeks after graduation, he suggests, at dinner, that they take a trip. His father’s excuse, as always, is that he “can’t leave the business.” James is furious. The next morning, without notifying his parents, he takes off, heading west, determined to “see the world.” Jack Trent’s background is quite different. Jack has never had a home. After his mother and baby sister died in an apartment fire in Kansas City, his father spends the next fifteen years moving from place to place, from job to job. Jack has never attended any one school for more than a year. His lifelong dream has been to have a home of his own. He has just begun the second semester in the community college in Grand Junction, Colorado when his father is killed in an automobile accident. Trying to decide what to do Jack, who has been completely dependent on his father, drops out of school and hitches a ride in an 18 wheeler. He has just decided that the sensible thing is to become a truck driver. Then he and James meet up at a truck stop in Cheyenne, Wyoming. James invites Jack to ride along, They decide to travel the perimeter of the United States. As they drive, they discuss their hopes and dreams, each envying the other for having lived a life the other wants so badly. With the passing of time, they give each other hope that fate will intervene and their dreams will ultimately be realized. Ten months later, after sojourns up into Canada, down into Mexico and the Florida Keys, they have reached Rockland, Maine. While there, James receives word that his father has suffered a heart attack. They rush back to Grangerville. His father recovers, but James is trapped. As a matter of fact, it appears that both boys are doomed to give up their dreams. Is James’s fate to settle down in Grangerville, working with his ailing father in the printing business? Will Jack again be forced into drifting from place to place, following in his father’s footsteps, forever seeking?

Louisa May Alcott (November 29, 1832 – March 6, 1888) was an American novelist and poet best known as the author of the novel Little Women (1868) and its sequels Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886). Raised by her transcendentalist parents, Abigail May and Amos Bronson Alcott in New England, she also grew up among many of the well-known intellectuals of the day such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

A wonderful book to read aloud and share, this favourite nursery rhyme is brought to life by Kate Willis-Crowley.Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after...With instructions for making your own Jack and Jill finger puppets at the end of the story, this book is one to treasure.