Book Review SPROUT AND THE HELICOPTER by Jenifer Wayne Illustrated by Gail Owens 007068698X

Sprout and the Helicopter
Jenifer Wayne, Author (1917-1982)
Gail Owens, Illustrator
Copyright © 1974 by Jenifer Wayne

Popcorn Bag Weekly Reader Book Club Edition
McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York NY
ISBN 0-07-068698-x


This is the fourth book in a series of Sprout books. The other three books are Sprout, Sprout’s Window Cleaner, and Sprout and the Dogsitter.5 Chapters, 88 pages8-1/4 x 5-5/8 inches (21 cm)

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 Tilly were both rescued. The men who saved Tilly by rescue helicopter slashed the dinghy to sink it, so that no one else would think there was a dinghy in the middle of the ocean with someone in it.

Sprout is now beside himself, but not for the danger in which he put his sister. He is beside himself because the new, bright yellow dinghy has been destroyed. He moped and he frowned. For this Sprout along with Raymond were invited to the rescue station to see the helicopters and how they conducted their rescue operations.

Sprout, was not grateful for the opportunity, and was rude to the men showing them around the site. Following this, he was given a new and larger dinghy along with life jackets and gear by one of the residents at their lodging.

This is a story of parenting without discipline and a little boy out of control, bent only upon fulfilling all of his desires without thought or care for anyone else. He is not taught responsibility or good behavior, but rather finds it acceptable to do what he knows is not allowed, thus putting others in danger, and then rewarded for his efforts.

Sprout is not cute. He is a naughty little boy, and has become so because his parents have allowed it to happen.I recommend this book. It is a lesson for parents on the consequences of not disciplining their children, and a lesson for children on the consequences of selfishness

.... babamarusia

Hello! I am babamarusia (Mary Katherine May). My husband Rick and I own Quality Music and Books. We are in the process of moving our store, but invite you to visit our website -- http://www.qualitymusicandbooks.com/.