Teachers Notes for
Another Fine Mess 002
By Norman Jorgensen
Best friends, Michael Hardy and Woody Decker, are on a mission – a quest to go out with Gerri and Gina, the two hottest chicks at Chard Valley Junior High, but, unhappily, everything conspires against them. Fortunately, at the town agricultural show a police car catches alight, Sideshow Alley burns down, and Michael accidentally becomes, through no efforts of his own, a reluctant town hero. You’d think all his troubles were over and girls would be flocking to be his girlfriend when he wins the Citizen Bravery Award for fighting the fire at the show grounds, but no, his life continues to spiral out of control straight down the toilet. Except in Michael’s case it is right into the sewage farm. The fire truck crashes into a sewage pond, a farmer is electrocuted in a particularly sensitive spot, and a sewerage laden willy-willy splatters their school. In a town populated with the oddest characters, total losers and the most deluded fools imaginable, these two still manage stand out and make their readers feel superior. No one can possibly be that unlucky. Or can they?
A Fine Mess, published in 2004, was originally written with reluctant readers in mind, however, Another Fine Mess 002, the sequel, whichcontinues the story of the two most ill-fated dorks in ChardValley, has taken on a life of its own and now a much wider readership.
In the funniest novel to hit the bookshelves in years, a wildly chaotic ride full of side-splitting disasters, Michael Hardy fancies himself as a world famous spy novelist and sets out to write a novel having created a fictional character, the uber-cool and dangerous Dirk Fleming, Junior MI6 Agent. But unlike the hapless author, the fearless Dirk Fleming can do no wrong as he saves the world from Weapons of Mass Destruction, escapes from the clutches of the notorious KGB and wins the admiration of Antonia Ford, the sexiest spy in MI6. All Michael has to do now is find a publisher who is as deluded as he is.
Study Notes
Look at the cover. The designer has given the cover the same appearance you’d find on a movie poster or a DVD box. Why do you think she did this? If you were the designer what would you have done?
Michael and Woody are responsible for the passengers of a hot air balloon ending up toppling head first in a sewerage pond. Write about the worst disaster you may have caused. Feel free to use your imagination to add poetic licence to the events to make your story more dramatic.
Michael Hardy’s fictional spy Dirk Fleming is the sort of person Michel would dearly love to be like. He’s clever, athletic, super cool, is great with spy gadgets, and has razor-sharp vision and he can fly a Harrier Jet Fighter. Invent your own hero. What does your character look like, and what do they do to save the world, the environment, the town or even the school.
Michael first date with Gerri goes horribly wrong when he spills red cordial all over her new outfit. Write a scene of the dialogue you would expect hear if a similar thing happened to you.
Michael is assistant editor of Skool Daze, the ChardValleyHigh School newspaper. Design and create the front page of a newspaper for your school.
The Bright Sparks Fire Brigade Cadets’ uniform consists of yellow t-shirts, little red shorts, yellow plastic boots and red plastic fire helmets. Michael and Woody dread having to dress up like this every week in case their friends see them. It is soooo uncool. Design a new uniform for the Bright Sparks that would appeal to teenagers and that you would mind having to wear if you were forced to join the group .
Principal Horatio Principle, the Principal of the CathedralGrammar School is a character who seems to be caught in a historical time warp. He thinks he’s in charge of a British boarding school in the days of corporal punishment and cold showers. Contrast the life of school students to in those days to the sort of life you lead in your modern day school.