Jack Splash

by Simon James Green, Simon James Green

 

A funny and fantastical adventure from Olympian Tom Daley all about perseverance, friendship and positivity. Written in collaboration with children's author, Simon James Green. With gorgeous illustrations by Luna Valentine. Jack really wants to impress his diving coach dad ... there's just one problem. Jack is the worst diver in the worst diving team in Damp Bottom, England. But when a new kid starts at school with magic swimming skills and an eagerness to share tips, Jack's luck might be about to change.

But when Jack's new friend gets into trouble - and the fate of a secret world hangs in the balance - it's up to Jack and the rest of his diving crew to save the day. Sometimes it's not about winning, it's about helping your friends when they need it the most, it's about team work...

A not to be missed hilarious adventure story Bringing together the most decorated British diver of all time Tom Daley - and acclaimed children's and YA-and Carnegie-nominated author Simon James Green, whose latest middle-grade book Finn Jones Was Here was Indie Book of the Month in May With gorgeous illustrations throughout from Luna Valentine that bring the humour and adventure to life

Genres: Middle Grade, Childrens

311 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 14, 2024

About the author

Simon James Green grew up in a small town in Lincolnshire that definitely wasn’t the inspiration for Little Fobbing – so no-one from there can be mad with him, OK? He enjoyed a classic British education of assorted humiliations and barbaric PE lessons before reading Law at Queens’ College, Cambridge, where he further embarrassed himself by accidentally joining the rowing team despite having no upper body strength and not being able swim. When it turned out that being a lawyer was nothing like how it looks in Suits or The Good Wife, and buoyed by the success of his late night comedy show that involved an inflatable sheep, he travelled to London to pursue a glamorous career in show business. Within weeks he was working in a call centre, had been mugged, and had racked up thousands of pounds worth of debt. Finding strength and inspiration in the lyrics of "Tubthumping" by Chumbawumba, he eventually ended up working on a range of West End shows and UK tours, co-wrote a feature-length rom-com for the BBC and directed Hollyoaks for C4 / Lime Pictures. After trying really, really hard, he also managed to write Noah Can’t Even. If you are interested in stalking him, he still lives in London, where he spends a lot of time telling people that Noah Can’t Even is only partly autobiographical, and his mum has definitely never done a Beyoncé tribute act.

Reviews

[Mrs Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m always weary when a famous person turns their hand to writing a book. However, Tom Daley has smashed all of my expectations. From the beginning I was drawn in. I totally fell in love with Jack and Billy. I loved the lesson behind it that supporting each other can make a huge difference. Genuinely one I can’t wait to add to the school library.

[Tracy Lander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jack's parents have split up and because Mum travels a lot with her work he lives with his Dad.

Jack's dad was a champion diver in his day. But now he has decided to be a coach for the Aquaducks, they are a diving team with their pool situated in the primary school grounds at Damp Bottom, yes that really is the place name! Jack is on the Aquaducks team not because he thinks he's a champion diver but because he wants to help Dad and make him proud. Dad tells him he is 'one in a million' but Jack doesn't think this is a good thing. He says "Being one in a million means being rare. Another word for rare is "unusual". And another word for "unusual is "weird" ". He's not sporty at all and he likes knitting. He thinks this definitely makes him weird in Dad's eyes.

Jack becomes 'Jack Splash' after that incident - the one where his dive was so bad it soaked the mayor, who they wanted to impress so that he kept the dive pool open. We start with Jack standing on the top board, thinking about that incident, only to face ridicule from Elijah from the Trident team who are from Princeton Academy, who have the best facilities money can buy. The dive doesn't go well, and Jack sinks to the bottom where a glittering ring attracts him. He picks it up and puts it on ready to take to Lost Property - only he has to get ready for his last dive....which is utterly superb! What just happened? Nugget, his best friend and chicken nugget aficionado, has it on film. They take the ring to Lost Property and go to get nuggets!

The next day Jack's dives are back to normal - bad! But a boy he has never seen before tells him what he is doing wrong! Who is he? Billy is his name, he's not a Trident spy he says just new. Jack tells Billy he'd better not be late for Miss Pickles class register, she hates lateness. But when the door opens Billy is still in his trunks! He even queries what clothes are....then raids the dressing up box for some! He's very interested in the Goldfish in the class. He also likes water - a lot! At lunchtime the school bullies are out to get Billy, who is painting his nails. Jack decides that just because you are different shouldn't mean you have to put up with this...after all he'd been on the receiving end too many times. Billy is sad, he doesn't understand what he did wrong...he's never met a horrible person in his 10 years. Billy paints Jack's nails, they're very glittery a bit like that ring.
Billy continues to get into scrapes that Jack and Nugget try to get him out of. At the fish shop, he cries out names and seems distressed so Jack decides to stick with veggie burgers. Then there's the man with the glittery shoes...
Dad is interested in the fact that Billy is good at diving. Then Billy goes to the bathroom, Jack looks in his bag...until he hears water running. Billy is in the shower. As he watches Billy leave Jack realises Billy is looking for something and he has been since they met. But what? Then he sees a woman staring at him, she's wearing glittery shoes like the man in the Fish Shop.
When Billy joins the team for practice, he starts giving them tips on how to improve. But Billy's main criticism is that apart from Fayola no-one supports each other, they need to work as a team. Zain isn't happy and insists if he's so good they should see it. Billy's dive is perfection!
Then comes the knitting incident at school, and Jack finds out that the ring in Lost Property is Billy's. But it's not there any more, it's been claimed. Billy tells Jack about who he is and why he is there.
But they need to get the ring so that Billy can go home....can they get it back and just who are those people with the glittery shoes?

I really appreciate the celebrities who make it clear that they had some ideas for a story but that they have used a children's author to help them put it into words. Tom Daley has worked with Simon James Green on this story which is, as I'd expect from Simon, very good. Tom is very complimentary in the acknowledgements saying that Simon "brought the story to life in the most magical, fun and surprising ways".
I love that so much of the book is about acceptance and working together for good, even Harper and Logan come good in the end. Jack and Billy are brilliant characters, will we see them again? I would like to hope so.
Thanks to Penelope at Scholastic for this copy. Jack Splash was released on 14th March 2024.
TA, ESCP.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’d say this is aimed at 8-9 year olds, though it does look quite long and daunting for the age group. There are some pictures sprinkled throughout, and the language and sentence structures are quite simple and I think perfect for that age group. It’s a bit info dumpy in places in regards to Billy, but I think it needs to explain it that way for the age of the intended audience. Content wise there’s generic ‘bad guys’ and a kidnapping, mild bullies and a sweet message about acceptance, support and friendship. There’s nothing that makes it particularly standout from other books of the genre in this age group, but it does have a light-hearted charm to it. I’m always a sucker for a heist story, and there’s a pretty fun one at the end.

[Mark Gee · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book I brought becuase i like Simon James greens other books, although it’s got Tom Daley as the author in bold they did both work together on this book.
It was a good read, I wasn’t disappointed either.

[Gordon Ambos · Rating 4 out of 5]

unnormal cute!

[John Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great fun book, with a lovely story about friendship and being a team.

Add that with the combination of Tom Daley & Simon James Green co-authoring the book and you're in for a sweet read.

Available FREE in Irish Libraries