Newton Starker feels cursed because everyone in the Starker family bloodline has been struck dead…by lightning. They simply attract lightning! The family has rules, but even his own mother had mistakenly looked at the wrong day on the calendar and had gotten caught in a storm. Newton is the last of the line, except for his great-grandmother, Enid, “a woman as friendly as a pickled wolverine."
Determined to survive, he decides to try something new. He enrolls at the Jerry Potts Academy of Higher Learning and Survival, a boarding school in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, where the motto is survival through fierce intelligence. Newton finds that making friends is as challenging as staying alive, especially when he vies for top marks with a girl named Violet Quon.
NEWTON STARKER’S RULES FOR SURVIVAL
• Do not take a bath during a thunderstorm.
• When thunder roars, go indoors. Fast!
• Beware of cumulonimbus clouds.
• Check the weather before exiting any building.
• Remember not to get angry. Anger has been the downfall of many a Starker.
• If your hair stands on end, you are about to be struck by lightning.
• Lightning travels down telephone wires. Use only cordless phones.
• Check the weather. Recheck the weather. Check it again.
With Jolted, Arthur Slade has written a wonderfully entertaining, brisk and funny read. In spite of his intensity, dogged determination and quirky nature, Newton is a likeable character and his pet Josephine, a truffle-sniffing pig, is a hoot.