Book Report
Manon N. Dalh V4a Mr. Marrenga 16/01/2013
Book Report General Information Title: Writer: Year of publication: publication: Number of pages:
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 ¾ Sue Townsend 1982 187
Title The title is exactly what the book is. T he secret diary of Adrian Mole. The main character started writing this dairy when he was 13 ¾ years old. I think the title suits the story perfectly. Setting Place: The story takes place in a small town in England. Somewhere in the vicinity of Sheffield. I don’t think it was necessary to use this place. The writer could have chosen any place as long as it is in England. Time: The story take place from 1981 till 1982. I do t hink that the story would have been different if it didn’t didn’t take place then. There are a few events mentioned that took place in the book. Like Lady Diana’s marriage or the Falkland War. Genre The genres of this book are growing up and humour. Character Adrian Mole Mole is 13 ¾ years old. He lives with his mother, mother, father and dog. dog. They live in a town somewhere in the vicinity of Sheffield. He works at school as a Samaritan and outside of school as a paper boy. He comes from a lower middle class family so he isn’t rich but he isn’t poor either. Adrian is also a worrier. He worries about a lot of things. Like his acne, t he problem of existence, the crack in his parents’ marriage, parents’ marriage, love and school. He likes to write poems and aims to become a writer. Adrian believes he is an intellectual. intellectual. He’s not that smart but he is very naive. Naive, you notice this at the beginning of the story. For example, he he doesn’t realize what kind of relationship his mother and their neighbour Mr. Lucas have. Egoistic, he doesn’t like the fact that some people have things he doesn’t hav e. Like a mountain bike. Unenergetic, Unenergetic, he doesn’t like to exercise at all. He always asks his father to write a note so he won’t have to join the P.E. lessons. Helpful, he likes to help people. That’s why he joined the Samaritans. Dutiful, he keeps reporting reporting things to the teacher. He thinks it’s his duty. I think he’s a funny character. I like the way he talks but I disagree with him on certain things. He is a unique person and he has an unique way of thinking. He doesn’t really think like me. He is well described. described. It’s easy to read about him and it doesn’t bore me at all.
Plot Summary The story begins on 1 January 1982. He is 13 ¾ years old. He begins his diary with a few New Year’s resolutions. His resolutions. His parents become sick and Adrian looks after them. His parents get into a fight after their neighbour Mr. Lucas brings his mother flowers. He decides to become an intellectual and sends the BBC a letter. He writes poems and joins the library. Adrian meets Pandora, Pandora, the new girl, girl, in school. He He falls in love with her. They join t he ‘Good Samaritans’. This is a group that does social work for the elderly. Adrian has been put in charge of an eighty-nine-year-old eighty-nine-year- old chain smoker called Bert Baxter. Adrian doesn’t like working for Bert at first because Bert’s house is disgusting. Adrian found out that his best friend, Nigel, started dating Pandora. His parents decide to get a divorce. Adrian’s mother leaves for with their neighbour Mr. Lucas. His father loses his job and starts drinking and smoking. Adrian gets in trouble at school for wearing red socks. This is against the rules. Adrian did it because because he was was feeling rebellious. rebellious. Pandora organises organises a sock sock protest committee. committee. Their protest was stopped by their headmaster and they were all suspended for a week. Bert is taken taken to a retirement home even though he didn’t want to. He hates it there. Adrian and Pandora wrote a magazine called ‘The Voice of Youth’. Only 1 of 500 copies was sold. Adrian gets a letter letter from the hospital which invites invites him to get his tonsils tonsils out. After the operation he finds out that Bert has befriended a woman called Queenie. They decided to marry. Adrian’s father still has no job job and has problems problems with paying paying all the bills. bills. Adrian’s mother came back to Adrian’s father because Mr. Lucas treated her lik e a sex object. Adrian’s father was was extremely happy. happy. Adrian’s parents parents both stopped stopped smoking. After a while Adrian’s father finally finally got a job. Pandora gets into a fight with another girl who likes Adrian. After that she ignores ignores Adrian for a few days. They make up later. later. The day they make make up is also the day that the Falkland War began. Initial incident I think the initial incident is the fight between Adrian’s parents. After their fight a lot of things changed for many people. I think this fight created even more tension between Adrian’s parents. Climax Adrian’s parent parent got back together. together. Bert marries Queenie. Queenie. Pandora and Adrian made up. Inner Conflict I think Adrian’s inner conflict is that he tries to prove to that he is an intellectual and intellectual and how to handle love. He doesn’t like the fact that Pandora is smarter than he is. He keeps sending the BBC letters and he reads a lot of English literature. He wanted to marry Pandora as soon as he was old enough but she wanted to go to a university first. Theme The theme of this story is love . There are a lot of love. The T he love and romantic relationships relationships of Adrian, Pandora, his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Lucas, Doreen. They are all very different. Personal Opinion I liked the way Adrian handled the divorce. He wasn’t really sad about it, like you would expect of a child. I also liked how Adrian worried about so many things. I would recommend this story to others because it’s written like a diary. There are that many books that are written like this. ‘My nipples have swollen! I am turning into a girl!!!’ I think it’s funny how he sometimes says ridiculous things like that. ‘Mrs. Bull taught us t o wash up in Domestic Science. Talk about teaching your grandmother to suck eggs! I must be one of the best wash-uppers in the world! Barry Kent broke and
unbreakable plate so Mrs. Sent him out of the room. I saw him smoking quite openly in the corridor. He has certainly got a nerve! I felt it was my duty to report him to Mrs. Bull. I did this purely out of concern concern for Barry Kent’s Kent’s health ’ I like this because you can clearly see some of his characteristics. Ending The story ends with wit h Adrian’s Parents getting back together. Adrian’s mother came back to Adrian’s father because because Mr. Lucas treated treated her like a sex object. object. Adrian’s Adrian’s father was extremely happy. Adrian’s parents both stopped smoking. After a while he f inally got a job. and Adrian having the most humiliating humiliating experience of his life. Review Even though this book is quite old, it is still read and loved by many. The book is the diary of the 13 ¾ years old Adrian Mole. He writes very confidently about his live. The story takes place between 1981 and 1982. He writes about his parents’ marital problems and his relationship with Pandora. He also writes about his dog, his poems, acne, troubles in school, and his elderly friend Bert. There isn’t really something you can indicate as the introduction because it’s a diary. diary. But the initial incident is clearly the fight between his parents. From there the story starts developing developing in a interesting interesting direction. the characteristics characteristics of the main characters are very different. For example, Pandora is a very bright girl, Adrian is a very naive but helpful, his father is hot-tempered and so on. It is a great book to read. Especially for people around Adrian’s age. Opinion I liked reading this book. It was different from the books I usually read. I usually read books with themes like action, adventure or the supernatural. It was nice reading something so different. The book certainly met my expectations. I expected that it would be a very funny book about a boy of 13 ¾ years old who has a lot of troubles t roubles in his life. I was not as funny f unny as I thought it would be but it still was amusing.
