Doctor Jack O' Lantern by Richard Yates

SUMMARY
This story was about a fourth grade boy who was raised by foster parents. He came to an obviously smaller town from New York City. The boy was not exactly "moneyed" and had the tough NY accent, and attitude, with the name to match. His teacher felt bad for him because he kept to himself, not mixing with anyone in class. The first scene where she sat on his desk was written to make it seem like she was almost flirting with the boy. She tried to be his friend, but in the process, she "put him on the spot". He was an imaginative boy when it came to telling stories. That point is something the teacher was somewhat bothered by. She claimed that she was hurt by Vinny's actions after she was told that he scrawled swear words on a school wall. Of course, after his lecture, two of the other boys were almost enamoured with him. At least until Miss Price caught up with them and was cheerful towards Vinny.

COMMENT

I really liked this story. More than most of the other ones. In fact, I related very closely to Vinny. I was just like him in Elementary school. I had a couple of friends, but they had different schedules than I did. At school, I pretty much kept to myself. The only difference was that I would have never scribbled on the school walls. The story actually gave me flashbacks. And at my age, that goes back pretty far! lol I didn't really get the ending, though. Did Vinny do the drawing of the teacher as a nice thing, at first, when he first drew the face? Or did he intend it the way it turned out as a way to get even with Miss Price for messing up his story?

All in all, I enjoyed this story and it brought back many memories.