How Hedley Hopkins Did A Dare, Robbed A Grave, Made A New Friend Who Might Not Really Have Been There At All And While He Was At It Committed A ... Was Doing Even Though He Didn't Know It

By Paul Jennings

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0141320435
• ISBN13: 9780141320434
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Penguin Australia
• Length: 201 Pages
• Weight: 0.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.6" x 5.1"

Customer Reviews

Jennings Dares With Hedley

The full name of the book is "How Hedley Hopkins Did a Dare, Robbed a Grave, Made a New Friend Who Might Not Have Really Been There At All, And While He Was At It Committed A Terrible Sin Which Everybody Was Doing Even Though He Didn't Know It", and it's a title three times as long as the blurb. Released in 2005, twenty years after Paul Jennings first became a published writer, it is the children's author's first full length novel. For most of his career he has written short stories, which he has released in collections (like "Unreal","Uncanny" and "Unseen"), and as skinny illustrated pieces (like "The Paw Thing" and "The Cabbage Patch Fib"). He has written longer stories, as serial fiction with a chap called Morris Gleitzman (the "Wicked!" and "Deadly!" serials), but this is the first time he's written a full length piece on his own. I didn't know what to think, but being a Paul Jennings fan for as long as I've been able to read novels, I decided to check it out. I'm glad I did. The story is all about Hedley Hopkins, a British immigrant to 1950s Australia. His only friend is his sister, he lives near a "loony bin", his teacher is painfully strict, and the bullies at school are giving him trouble about his accent and mannerisms (Australians tend to pick on the English). He's sensitive and knows it. He writes stories and likes to draw pictures, sometimes of naked ladies (which he is very ashamed about doing). Hedley's whole world is turned upside down the day he finds an open grave on the beach. In terms of style, I'd say the book is closest to his 1995 short story collection "Uncovered". It's very realistic, and though there may be a hint of the supernatural, everything in the story could actually happen. There's also a lot of the themes Paul has played with throughout his writing here (bullies, dares, ghosts, etc). That's not to say that this isn't a unique book. Paul Jennings hasn't done anything like this before. The setting is well researched, historically and culturally accurate. He tackles big issues like puberty, religion, autism, racism, mental illness and Australia's not too pleasant past. The kids in this book swear, and have that cruel, savage streak that Australian kids adopt to fit in (not something you hear about too often when other countries speak of Australia). Just like "Uncovered" it was a bit close to home for me, literally. Even though it's set in the 1950s and I was Hedley's age in the mid 1990s, I could relate to a lot of the nastiness and spite in this book. Though unlike "Uncovered", this book is encouraging, is better written, and is aimed at teens more than kids, who could probably deal with the graphic content a little better. I wonder what I would have thought of it if it had been published ten years earlier? In the author's note, Paul says that a lot of this book is based on his real life, and it shows. I could feel him pouring his heart into this one. It's a side that I haven't seen of him before, and yet it stil