The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester

An amazing secret has tumbled off a freight train into Carter, Georgia, and Owen Jester is the only person who knows about it. If he can simply manage to evade his grandfather's snappish housekeeper, organize his two best friends, and keep his nosy neighbor, Viola, at bay, he just might be in for the summer of a lifetime. With her trademark wit and easy charm, Barbara O'Connor spins a fantastic fable of friends, enemies, and superbly slimy bullfrogs.

Author Barbara O'Connor has a knack for effortlessly conveying the ambience of a southern small town, as well the inner conflicts of a child weighing right and wrong. Owen Jester suspects something has fallen off the night run of the freight train and discovers it is a mini-submarine destined for a resort park in Florida. He and his pals plot and scheme to get it down to the pond, but nosy neighbor girl Viola pricks at his conscience by pointing out it doesn't belong to them. Owen also is debating whether to release the bullfrog he hoped to keep as a pet.

This is a sweet story about a young boy, Owen Jester, trying to deal with the move to his grandfather's house. Two big things happen to him in this story: 1) he catches the world's most beautiful bullfrog and 2) he discovers the mysterious and wonderful thing that fell off the train that runs behind his grandfather's house. How he deals with these two events, make up the course of the book.

Let me start by saying that I love Barbara O'Connor's writing. How to Steal a Dog is a book I love and recommend often to my elementary school students. I was not that thrilled with this book, however. The first 7 or 8 chapters were repetitive . . . Owen worried about frog, Owen and friends trying to get rid of know-it-all Viola. While the short show more chapters and easy reading seem like they should appeal to reluctant readers, not much happens in his book until the last couple of chapters. It's a sweet story but I'm not sure if young boys (who this book seems to be geared toward) will stick with it. Hopefully, I'm wrong. show less

Fun story. Not totally unbelievable, and I loved how the geeky girl next door ends up saving the day.

Grades 3-6
Owen Jester, newly moved in with his grandfather after his father lost his job, has just caught the biggest, greenest, slimiest bullfrog in all of Carter, Georgia. He has all sorts of big plans for Tooley Graham. But Tooley's not cooperating. Instead of enjoying the indoor and outdoor frog houses that Owen has designed especially for him, Tooley just sits there. Owen hates to admit it, but his annoying, know-it-all neighbor Viola may be onto something when she says that Tooley just wants to be free. Interwoven with Owen's quandary over what to do about Tooley is the mysterious thud and tumble, tumble, tumble sound that he heard the other night when the train went through. He just knows that something amazing has fallen off show more the train, and he is determined to comb the woods behind his grandfather's house until he finds it. This story of summertime adventures and friendships in unlikely places has lots of kid appeal. show less

After Owen captures an enormous bullfrog, names it Tooley Graham, then has to release it, he and two friends try to use a small submarine that fell from a passing train to search for Tooley in the Carter, Georgia, pond it came from, while avoiding nosy neighbor Viola.

I wasn't enamored by this story. I found the story itself to be predictable and it lacked that wow factor. I also found that the characters lacked depth. I also found that the characters acted with disrespect towards one another for much of the book, which I was also not a fan of.