Watch out for Jamie Joel by Mike Dumbleton - 674 Words

The novel, Watch out for Jamie Joel written by Mike Dumbleton, successfully explores a realistic view of secondary school life. Dumbleton uses a unique narrative perspective, structural manipulation, characterisation, supported by a variety of themes such as death, family conflict and pressure. Symbolism and foreshadowing heighten concern and sympathy for Craig Eliot and Jamie Joel in their every day challenges in the life of a deputy principal and a teenage girl. Dumbleton’s uses two captivating points of view to explore the novel Watch out for Jamie Joel, the first view is from Jamie, a secondary school student and the second view is from the deputy principal, Craig Eliot. These alternating views are easily distinguished by a different font for each view, and also by an icon of a girl running, characterising Jamie and a Icon of a man, relaxed and standing still characterising Craig. While Dumbleton’s alternating narrative style does not allow the reader to become very familiar with only one character, requiring a constant level of awareness while reading the story, it does provide an advantage of knowing when the story has switched from Craig asking Danny â€Å"about the sports shed being broken into† to Jamie hurrying to babysitting the Marlow kids. Sometimes the two points of view connect which is depicted when Jamie told Craig it â€Å"was a mistake† when he met her for the first time outside the classroom. Dumbleton’s unique structure of not having traditional chapters andShow MoreRelatedReview: Watch Out for Jamie Joel848 Words   |  3 Pagesmodern youth? Well, folks, that book is a reality and it is called Watch Out for Jamie Joel. The author, Mike Dumbleton, is a teacher. We know hes in tune with current events because he makes the daily issues from school seem believable not some anguished weepy heroine hopelessly in love with the vampire down the street, but a real school in which the problems are both gritty and contemporary. The title character, Jamie Joel, is a student at a high school in a middle-lower middle class neighborhood