Review ‘Gizmo’ by Paul Jennings Book Review Review ‘Gizmo’ by Paul Jennings

How to write a book review Describing the book and saying what you think about it Organised into paragraphs Each paragraph about one aspect of the book (character, plot, style, point of view) Choose important events and interesting points of detail

Introduction Give the title of the book Name the author Give some details about the author Say something about the type of book and your overall reaction Describe the book in one sentence Describe the plot in one sentence

Paragraph 1 Give a summary of the plot Focusing on main events early Use quotation marks for any exact words Use linking words such as first, next, then, finally

Paragraph 2 Say something about one or two of the main characters

Paragraph 3 Talk about the theme of the book and what it means

Conclusion Give your opinion of the book (recommendation or point of view) Be honest and comment on both the positive and negative

Words bullying / guilty / brides / Paul / Floggit / England / steal / whimp / strange / Wilkins / bikini / Jennings / 1994 / Stephen / lesson / markets / swapping / character / stolen / swimming

Close Exercise – fill in the gaps Introduction The book ‘Gizmo’ by ( 1. ) ( 2. ) was written in ( 3. ) and revolves around the story of a boy named ( 4. ) Wilkins. Paul Jennings was born in ( 5. ) and has written many children’s’ story such as Unbelievable, Uncanny, The Next and many more. His stories are written mostly for 9-12 year olds. I enjoyed the book because of the idea of a ‘Gizmo’ and the strange and hilarious things that it did.

Paragraph 1 The story begins with ( 6. ) and Stephen at the ( 7. ) where they are looking to ( 8. ) something. Floggit is ( 9. ) Stephen by calling him a ( 10. ). When they find the ‘Gizmo’ stand they see a ( 11. ) man, who by chance turns his back, giving Stephen the opportunity to steal a gizmo. The boys escape the market and go different ways. At this point Stephen realizes that there is something strange about the Gizmo and that he wants to get rid of it but he can’t. The middle part of the story is where the Gizmo begins to randomly turn on and off and begins switching clothes with everyone Stephen sees. This leads to a series of catastrophic events that involves a jogger, a punk, a tramp, a ( 12. ) maid and a girl in a ( 13. ). The end of the story involves Floggit arriving at the ( 14. ) pool to get the gizmo back from Stephen. What he doesn’t realize is that Stephen is about to trick him into having no clothes in front of everyone!

Paragraph 2 The main ( 15. ) of the book is Stephen ( 16. ) who is a young boy involved with the wrong people. He is trying to get rid of the Gizmo, when it starts working against him by ( 17. ) clothes with random people he passes. He concludes that the gizmo always returns to the person who has ( 18. ) it. Floggit is another main character who appears at the start and end of the story, and is the reason that Stephen stole the Gizmo in the first place.

Paragraph 3 The story focusses on Stephen’s ( 19. ) conscience as he regrets stealing the Gizmo and tries anything to return it. He returns the spanner and when he does this he realizes that he can be forgiven for his mistakes. But the Gizmo wants to teach him a lesson, which takes him on a journey of strange and hilarious events.

Conclusion I liked the story because it taught Stephen an important ( 20. ) about stealing. It explained this through a series of events that were extremely embarrassing for Stephen. The Gizmo was an interesting object which always kept me thinking about what it could do.

Answers Correct Answers 9. bullying 1. Paul 10. whimp 2. Jennings 11. strange 3. 1994 12. brides 4. Stephen 13. bikini 5. England 14. swimming 6. Floggit 15. character 7. markets 16. Wilkins 8. steal