Second Childhood: Coba Lagi

by Morris Gleitzman

Sejak masuk sekolah menengah, Mark merasa tertekan. Ayahnya ingin ia selalu jadi juara seperti di sekolah dasar dulu. Padahal menurut Mark, sekolah menengah jauh lebih sulit. Untunglah ia mendapat kesempatan untuk memperbaiki nilai ketika gurunya memberi tugas membuat karya tulis.

Saat mencari data untuk tugas ini, Mark dan teman-temannya mengetahui soal reinkarnasi. Biarpun awalnya tak percaya, mereka akhirnya sangat bersemangat ketika tahu mereka dulu tokoh-tokoh penting dan terkenal dalam sejarah!

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Indonesian Literature

144 pages, Softcover

First published March 8, 2004

About the author

Morris began his writing career as a screenwriter, and wrote his first children's novel in 1985. His brilliantly comic style has endeared him to children and adults alike, and he is now one of Australia's most successful authors, both internationally and at home. He was born in England in 1953 and emigrated to Australia in 1969 so he could escape from school and become a Very Famous Writer.

Before realising that dream, he had a colourful career as paperboy, bottle-shop shelf-stacker, department store Santa Claus, frozen chicken defroster, fashion-design assistant and sugar-mill employee. In between he managed to gain a degree in Professional Writing at the Canberra College of Advanced Education. Later he became sole writer for three award-winning and top-rating seasons with the TV comedy series The Norman Gunston Show.

Morris wrote a number of feature film and telemovie screenplays, including The Other Facts of Life and Second Childhood, both produced by The Australian Children's Television Foundation. The Other Facts of Life won an AWGIE Award for the Best Original Children's Film Script.

He also wrote live stage material for people such as Rolf Harris, Pamela Stephenson and the Governor General of Australia. Morris is well known to many people through his semi-autobiographical columns in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald magazine, Good Weekend, which he wrote for nine years.

But the majority of Morris' accolades are for his hugely popular children's books. One of his most successful books for young people is Two Weeks with the Queen, an international bestseller which was also adapted into a play by Mary Morris. The play had many successful seasons in Australia and was then produced at the National Theatre in London in 1995 directed by Alan Ayckbourn, and also in South Africa, Canada, Japan and the USA.

All his other books have been shortlisted for or have won numerous children's book prizes. These include The Other Facts of Life, Second Childhood, Misery Guts, Worry Warts, Puppy Fat, Blabber Mouth, Sticky Beak, Belly Flop, Water Wings, Bumface, Gift Of The Gab, Toad Rage, Wicked! and Deadly!, two six-part novels written in collaboration with Paul Jennings, Adults Only, Toad Heaven, Boy Overboard, Teacher's Pet, Toad Away, Girl Underground, Worm Story, Once, Aristotle's Nostril, Doubting Thomas, Give Peas A Chance, Then, Toad Surprise, Grace, Now, Too Small To Fail, and his latest book, Pizza Cake. Morris' children's books have been published in the UK, the USA, Germany, Italy, Japan, France, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Indonesia and Czechoslovakia, Russia and China.

Reviews

[Bunga Mawar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't stop myself giggling from time to time I turned this book's pages...

This is how an adult should write about children's life and thoughts. Morris Gleitzman understands it well how to describe children confusion on things that we never care about anymore. It's just natural when children do not feel comfortable to adults expectations for them, and they will find their own solution on their problems. This simple idea used to tend to a catastrophic situation for everyone, but the moral of the story that I got is NEVER let your regret stops you from doing good things for other people.

[Pharlap · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like very much M. Gleitzman books, although I cannot convince my grandchildren to read them.
What I like is selection of the plot - usually some disadvantaged child or animal and then a struggle to overcome obstacles, prejudices and then, using some smart ways to get on top of the trouble.
For me it is a breath of fresh air compared with the atmosphere of magic so much exploited now in so many books for children and adults.
Unfortunately, this time I did not find any of these elements. In my opinion a plot and the final outcome are very artificial. I do not think I will try to mention this book to my grandchildren.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note: This rating comes from my 12 year old self, in a recently discovered school assignment.

[✧˚ · meda * ˚ ✦ · Rating 3 out of 5]

strange... but funny, but still strange.

[H J Palmer · Rating 1 out of 5]

A quarter of the way into the book, 'Second Childhood' takes a very weird and bad turn. The children are all reincarnated famous people. As a parent, do not give it to young children.

[Lalu Fatah · Rating 3 out of 5]

“…Orang kan tidak bisa selalu jadi juara” (hal. 12)
Gelar yang tersemat pada diri seseorang, tak selamanya mengandung kebanggaan. Justru beban berat tersandang di situ. Seperti itulah yang dialami Mark Smalley. Gelar “Murid Teladan” yang ia peroleh di bangku kelulusan sekolah dasar, justru menjadi bayang-bayang yang menyeramkan kala ia masuk sekolah menengah. Boleh jadi ia mampu melahap pelajaran sekolah dasar dengan gampang. Namun, tentu saja, sekolah menengah jauh berbeda, mulai dari pola mengajar guru hingga tingkat kesulitan pelajarannya. Tuntutan dari ayahnya agar ia tetap juara membuat Mark tertekan.
Nilai esai sejarah hanya membuatnya merasa makin goblok. Orang tuanya, Bob dan Joy, hanya perlu tahu dia belajar di sekolah, rajin mengerjakan PR, dan menorehkan prestasi. Tak hanya pada Mark, pada Daryl, anak kedua mereka pun diberlakukan hal sama.
Untunglah ia mendapat kesempatan untuk memperbaiki nilai ketika gurunya memberi tugas karya tulis. Tidak main-main tugas tersebut. “Kau orang terkenal dalam sejarah. Tulislah surat kepada teman atau keluarga yang menceritakan hidupmu” (hal. 25).
Di tengah kebingungan harus memilih tokoh siapa, oleh gurunya, Mark dan teman-teman sekelasnya diajak ke Pameran Kekayaan Nasional. Mark ditemani oleh Pino Abrozetti yang suka ngupil, Annie Upton yang mengaku reinkarnasi Phar Lap – kuda pacu terhebat se-Australia, dan Rufus Wainright yang seringkali mentok di nilai D sekuat apapun dia berusaha.
Melalui Annie, Mark mendapat inspirasi untuk mencari tahu lebih banyak mengenai reinkarnasi. Rufus dan Pino pun terkontaminasi. Kendati awalnya tak percaya, namun mereka akhirnya bersemangat ketika tahu mereka dulu tokoh-tokoh penting dan terkenal dalam sejarah. Siapa saja tokoh penting yang mereinkarnasi dalam diri mereka? Mulai bab 9, satu per satu hal itu terkuak dengan cara yang kocak.
Meskipun mereka adalah reinkarnasi tokoh hebat dalam sejarah, namun tak bisa ditampik jika mereka, Mark terutama, menyesal. Itu setelah dia menyaksikan Mum-nya bersedih karena pohon yang ditanamnya perlahan-lahan mati. “Asap knalpot membunuh mereka. Aku pasti menipu diri sendiri, mengira ada yang bisa tumbuh di sini” (hal. 77). “Siapa pun yang menciptakan mobil,” ia berteriak marah, “seharusnya digantung!” (hal. 77). Itulah awal kesedihan Mark yang berbuntut pada kelanjutan karya tulisnya.
Namun, dari sana petualangan spektakuler – bisa dibilang nekat – yang dilakukan Mark dan kawan-kawannya pun dimulai.
Ini adalah buku kedua dari Morris Gleitzman yang saya baca setelah “Boy Overboard”. Sama-sama berlatar belakang di Australia dan mengangkat tokoh anak-anak, namun dengan tema yang berbeda. Khas Gleitzman yang kocak sekaligus menyentuh hati membuat saya yakin anak-anak akan menyukai buku-bukunya.
Berempati dengan cara tidak berlebih. Berlelucon tanpa melampaui kadar. Itulah Gleitzman.

[Riananda Cahyani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coba Lagi menceritakan perjuangan seorang anak yang bernama Mark. Dia berusaha mendapat nilai bagus untuk menjadi juara seperti saat dia SD. Namun gurunya memberi kesempatan dia untuk memperbaiki nilainya yang buruk. Dengan membuat sebuah karya tulis. Saat dia membuat karya tulisnya, dia dan teman - temannya mengetahui tentang reinkarnasi. Mereka amat bahagia pada mulanya. Karena mereka reinkarnasi dari orang - orang terkenal. Namun rasa bersalah mulai menghantui mereka. Mereka berusaha meminta maaf atas kesalahan dari reinkarnasi mereka.Lalu mereka mencari cara agar para orang dewasa mendengarkan perkataan mereka. Namun dibagian akhir cerita para pembaca dibuat bingung. Karena akhir yang tidak jelas. Padahal Morris Gleitzeman menceritakaan dengan apik di awal dan pertangahan cerita.

[Nola · Rating 4 out of 5]

A boy (Mark) struggling with the higher standards of high school and worried that he will be disappointing his parents practices a speech he's written to them in front of his friend. His friend decides he'd like to tell it to his mum too.

'I'll wait till you've told yours,' said Rufus. 'See if they hit you.'

Geez that's funny! It gets a little stranger when a classmate reveals that she was Phar Lap in a past life, and Mark and a few of his friends soon discover they have past lives too.

Towards the end I found the book to be less engaging and the ending was a bit flat but it was still an enjoyable read.

[Biondy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Buku yang bercerita mengenai sekumpulan anak yang mencari tahu dan kemudian percaya bahwa mereka adalah reinkarnasi tokoh-tokoh besar pada masa lalu. Mereka kemudian mengetahui dampak buruk yang telah mereka lakukan dan berusaha untuk memperbaikinya.

Iseng-iseng baca buku anak-anak. Ide ceritanya sebenarnya menarik, hanya saja cara penceritaannya tidak terlalu bagus. Sampai pertengahan sih masih oke, tapi sisanya rada aneh.

[Sian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ide ceritanya bagus, tapi cara menceritakannya kurang menggigit (soalnya kuda Phar Lap dah mati, ga bisa gigit lagi, rasanya menggantung. Terutama mengingat ini buku cerita yang ditujukan buat anak-anak, kayanya di bagian akhir bisa dibuat lebih dramatis dan jelas supaya pesan yang mau disampaikan bisa ditangkap anak (atau barangkali saya underestimate kali ya...)

[Speakercoret · Rating 3 out of 5]

pinjeman dari harun...

tandinya mau ngasih bintang empat, soalnya lucu banget, gw baca diangkot diliatin orang, abis ketawa sendirian :)
pa lagi pas pada cari tau mereka itu reinkarnasinya siapa, aurelitus diqira nama kaisar teryata nama jamur beracun yang ada di kotoran binatang pemamah biak.. hahahahha ampe mo ngakak gw...
sayang endingnya bikin turun ke bintang tiga :(

[Uci · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buku yang bikin gw cekikikan tengah malem! Tapi endingnya nggak asih ah...

[Afif · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terus terang nggak bisa menikmati buku ini....endingnya sangat mengecewakan ^_^;

[~♡Nujaba♡~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read it in English...gud book!

[Titish A.K. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cerita yang aneh.... Ini ada lanjutannya apa gimana ya?