Jake, Reinvented

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

As in Son of the Mob, Korman treats the theme of the trials of teen
love, but this time he embeds it within the context of the popularity
hierarchy commonly found in schools. Readers familiar with Korman’s
humour will be surprised, because Jake, Reinvented is a decidedly
unfunny book. Most adolescents, however, will immediately recognize and
be swept up by the social milieu Korman creates.

The book’s narrator, Rick, 17, who is the school football team’s
kicker and backup quarterback, is not at the top of the school’s
social heap. That spot has been long assumed by the Broncos’
quarterback, Todd Buckley, whose girlfriend is the gorgeous Didi Ray, a
student at a nearby all-girls school. The recent arrival of the
incredibly cool but mysterious Jake Garrett, the Broncos’ new long
snapper, begins to threaten Todd’s social standing, especially when
Didi shows an interest in Jake.

Like Jerry Renault in Cormier’s The Chocolate War, Jake has dared to
disturb a universe, and the reader’s tasks are to discover not only
why but also how that answer connects with the book’s title. Korman
salts his story with numerous clues—although, appropriately, their
real meaning may be clear only on a second reading. The answer to the
question “How do you personally deal with your place in a school’s
social order?” is ultimately the book’s overarching theme. Korman
provides a variety of responses through his principal and secondary
characters, including the approach taken by the oddball Dipsy, who seems
to be a willing victim of the football team’s hijinks. Recommended.