The Review of The Fourteenth Goldfish By Jaewoo

Introduction For the past month I have been reading “The Fourteenth Goldfish” written by Jennifer L. Holm. When I was search for a book in the library, this book looked interesting because of the book cover. In fact, the book was even more interesting than I expected.

Setting The setting of this book is the Bay Area of San Francisco, Ellie’s middle school, and police office. This book is about Ellie, 13 years old, helping her grandpa to get Nobel Prize and to help him adapt to middle school and learn about life. she also gets to know about life cycle. ‘Warm air drifts through my bedroom window. We live in the Bay Area, in the shadow of San Francisco, and late-September nights can be cool. But it’s hot tonight, like summer is refusing to leave.’ This shows details about where she lives.

Character- beginning One of the main characters is Ellie. At first, she misses her friend, Brianna who was participating in a volleyball competition and didn’t have time to play with Ellie. Ellie doesn’t have any interests. Her mother works in acting, and she had to help her. However, Ellie gets bored with her acting life. ‘They're always telling me I need to find my passion. Specifically, they’d like me to be passionate about theater. But I’m not. Sometimes wonder if I was born into the wrong family. Being onstage makes me nervous (I've watched too many actors flub their lines), and I’m not a fan of working behind the scenes, either (I always end up steaming costumes).’ This shows that she hates to work acting, working behind the scenes and shows that she didn’t find her passion in something.

Plot- beginning Ellie, who is becoming a middle schooler this year, is living with her mom who is a high school drama teacher. Ellie’s mom and father are divorced, but they are good friends. When she was at kindergarten, her teacher gave her one goldfish which lasted about 2 weeks. Her teacher tried to teach life cycle, but the goldfish lasted lots of years. Her mom actually bought another goldfish when each goldfish died. In fact, when Ellie saw the dead goldfish, it was the 14th goldfish. One day, she saw a young boy looking like her grandfather (Melvin) . That teenage boy was actually her grandfather. He told her about an immortal jellyfish and how it made him younger.

Plot- middle Melvin had to go to the middle school where Ellie attended. Since he had 76 old Melvin knowledge, he knew more than teachers. He kept telling Ellie that he had to go to his laboratory and get immortal jellyfish to receive Nobel Prize. So they went to his laboratory. However, the problem was that no one recognised him since he became younger. They tried many times to get in there, but got caught every time. He was also taken to police office for trespassing the lab.

Plot- end Melvin was concerned about everything in Ellie’s life. He was concerned about her dress code, her grades, her boyfriend, etc. Marvin also got interested in drama which he hated when he was a kid. She learned lots of things about science because Melvin told her a lot. She learned the cycle of life and found her interest which happened to be science.

Character- end At the end, Ellie understands the cycle of life, she gets interested in science because of her grandfather, Mervin. She also learns lots of stories of famous scientists and learns about observation from her grandpa. ‘I decided my room needs a makeover; I don’t want to look at all those little handprints anymore. My dad helps me one weekend when he’s home. We paint the walls a deep sea blue. We use glow-in the dark paint to add jellyfish near ceiling. When I lie in bed at night, it feels like I’m on the bottom of the ocean.’ It shows that she gets interested in science, she doesn't need her friend's handprints anymore.

Dialogue “I think what you wear on Halloween is important. It says something about you--who you are and what you want to be. There's got to be a reason so many girls go around dressed as princesses and witches.” The quote which I think was the most important was this quote because it showed how Marvin was concerned about Ellie’s and girls’ dress code.

Theme This book’s theme is the life cycle and importance of time because at first, this book shows 14 goldfish and immortal jellyfish. Next, the grandfather becomes teenager and explains about life cycle. In the book there is the part where Ellie’s mom prepares for the act, Our Town. This act shows one girl who lives ordinary. She gets married and gets kid and gets one chance to go back to 12. This shows importance of time. Other theme can be ‘find the interests’ because before Ellie finds interests, she doesn’t get interested in her life, but after she finds her interests, science, she lives happily.

Conclusion From this book, I learned how important the time is, what is cycle of life, find the interests, etc. I enjoyed the parts about Mervin becoming younger, how they tried to get in Mervin’s laboratory, how Mervin adapts to the school, how she changes. I would like to be Ellie and explore with Mervin about immortal jellyfish.