Sprout and the helicopter

By Jenifer Wayne

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 007068698X
• ISBN13: 9780070686984
• Release Date: January 1977
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill
• Length: 88 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Age Range: 9 to 11 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 6

Customer Reviews

Book Review SPROUT AND THE HELICOPTER by Jenifer Wayne

Sprout and the Helicopter by Jenifer Wayne (1917-1982), illustrated by Gail Owens. This edition: Popcorn Bag Weekly Reader Book Club, 1974. This is the fourth book in the SPROUT series: Sprout, Sprout's Window Cleaner, Sprout and the Dogsitter, Sprout and the Helicopter. Sprout is portrayed as a clever seven-year old boy who always seems to "land on his feet." I have read the book and found to the the contrary, though it is for this reason that I recommend this book. Here is my review. Sprout and the Helicopter is a good book, but not in the sense being a good story. It is a good book in that the story that teaches, with guidance from a parent or teacher, how not to behave. Sprout is a boy of seven years old on vacation with his family at the seaside. He is presented as cute, ambitious, and clever. What Sprout is, though, is spoiled, selfish, self-centered, disrespectful, and manipulative. Rupert E. Smith, aka Sprout, is a chubby boy allowed to eat anything and everything he wants. Totally without discipline, he has figured out that with persistence he can get anything he wants because his parents will give in to his bad behavior. Sprout finds a sheepdog who becomes a member of the Smith household, but will not be able to bring him on holiday. He whines and mopes, and his parents change their minds. The main focus in this story is winning a dinghy offered as a prize during regatta week. Though he knows that he is not allowed to own one, he and his friend, Raymond, secretly work to win the prize. The afternoon of the announcement for the winner Sprout could hardly contain himself. His mother wanted him to take their day visitor, Albina, swimming. Sprout sent Raymond instead, so he could listen for his name, even though Raymond doesn't like to swim in the ocean. When his name is announced, at first he didn't recognize that he and Raymond had won. So used to being called Sprout, the name Rupert E. Smith sounded like someone else. Proudly bringing the yellow dinghy back to the family's spot on the shore, Sprout and Albina's mothers see that the little girl, prone to illness and thin, is blue with cold from too long of a stay in the ocean. He is told to take her to the family car where it is warm. Not wanting to leave his prize, he insists that she is able to go alone, and as usual he gets his way. Now the car keys have been lost, so Albina is told to climb into the open trunk until the car can be opened. Not to long following, the families walk to the car, only to find that Albina is nowhere to be found. It seems that she crawled into the trunk of the wrong car and the car was gone. The police are telephoned immediately, and the families come to wait on the beach - only to discover that the dinghy and Sprout's three-year old sister, Tilly, are missing. It seems that Tilly took the dinghy onto the war and the current has taken her so far away all that could be seen was a spot of yellow. As happy endings go, Albina and T