Jake Drake Themes

Jake Drake is the lead protagonist of the Jake Drake series of novels by bestselling children’s author Andrew Clements. The first novel in the series was Jake Drake Know-It-All which was first published in 2001. The series of novels are best classified in the subgenre of school stories.

Jake Drake is a fourth grade student whose experiences form the bulk of the stories in the series. Drake shares his experiences ranging from bullying and going on to become the teacher’s favorite student and pet. At between 80 to 100 pages the novels provide entertaining school fodder with some food for thought and humor that make for nostalgic narratives about the school experience.

In the debut novel Jake Drake Know-It-All Jake gets super excited when the

Written in the early years of the new millennium, it is a nerdy novel that references nineties software and games. Despite the nerdy walk down memory lane, it is a realistic and fun story in which the lead character Jake comes up with an interesting hands-on science project. The focus on the friendship between Willie and Jake makes for some great exposition of the power of friendship and determination towards the achievement of an objective. It is a great introduction to friendship and the scientific method for

Jake never wanted to become a teacher’s pet but somehow he always found himself adored with almost the entire faculty singing his praises. As is expected, most of his classmates do not take kindly to the fact that he is the de-facto teacher’s pet. Looking to set things straight, he believes that if he engaged in some naughty mischief, he may damage his positive image among the teachers. His attempts at making himself look bad fall flat as the teachers praise him even more enhancing the disgust of his classmates. Things come to a head when the principal summons him to his office urgently. Could he have done too much in his quest to prove that he is not a teacher’s pet?

Jake Drake, Bully Buster has become one of the most popular novels in the series. Jake Drake is not the funniest, fastest, or toughest kid in the fourth grade though he has the tendency to come up with big ideas. He also likes to tell stories of the going ons in his school though he does not bother with the usual gossip. He loves to tackle forbidden subjects such as bullying from a different angle. For instance he asks if the teaching staff is so smart why is bullying a perennial problem in the school. He takes it upon himself to use his imagination and innovation to come up with some surprising