John Patrick Norman McHennessy: The Boy Who Was Always Late

by John Burningham

Every day, John Patrick sets off along the road to school, and although he hurries, strange and improbable happenings repeatedly make him late. To make things worse, his teacher never believes his story.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction, Humor

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bur...

Married to Helen Oxenbury They have one son and two daughters.

John Burningham was born in 1936 in Farnham, Surrey, and attended the alternative school, Summerhill. In 1954 he spent two years travelling through Italy, Yugoslavia and Israel, working at a variety of jobs.

From 1956-1959, he studied at the Central School of Art, after which he designed posters for London Transport and the British Transport Commission. He also spent a year on an animated puppet film in the Middle East. He then became a writer and illustrator of children's books, his first book, Borka: The Adventures of a Goose With No Feathers (1963) winning the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1963, an achievement he repeated with Mr Gumpy's Outing (1970).

Since then, he has written and illustrated many children's books. He is also a freelance designer of murals, exhibitions models, magazine illustrations and advertisements.

Reviews

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a funny story. A boy goes to school each morning and something happens each day to make him late. The teacher does not believe him, tells him not to make things up and gives him a punishment that each day becomes more severe.

I enjoy the way John Burningham thinks up very farfetched events for his stories that are humorous too. The boy has the last laugh, one morning he walks to school and nothing out of the ordinary happens, this means for once he is on time, however something has happened to the teacher and the boy ignores it and tells the teacher not to make things up.

All though the teacher does get angry and threatens the child, the story is humorous and the ending is very satisfying.

Read on open library.

[Mattia Ravasi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can very well envision my 4-year-old self throwing this book to a corner of the room, screaming "what is this shit," and logging in to GoodReads to write a one-star review that goes "I can very well envision my 24-year-old self throwing this book to a corner of the room, screaming "what is this shit," and logging in to GoodReads to write a one-star review that goes "I can very well envision my 4-year-old self throwing this book to a corner of the room, screaming "what is this shit," and logging in to GoodReads to write a one-star review that goes-

[Sue Read · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagination and excuses.....John Patrick is always late to school and suffers the consequences. Until, that is, the very end of the book when there's a lovely twist. Familiar and varied John Burningham art work.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poor John Patrick Norman McHennessy, his teacher doesn't believe him when all these fantastical things happen. The adult reading the story, can probably guess the ending....poor teacher. Gets what he deserves. Perhaps not the best "lesson" book for kids as it could end up teaching them to not be helpful...but kids will love it, and it will validate their feelings.

[Krystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author: John Burningham

Genre: Fictional picture book

Publication Info: Crown Publishers, Inc (1987)

Reading Level: Transitional

Topic/Theme: Honesty/ Trust/ self-deception

Issues Addressed: Strange things do occur, you just have to choose whether or not to believe them.

Classroom Uses: Shared Reading, Readers Theatre.

Summary: John (long name) is walking to school and a lot of strange things happen. He encounters lions, hairy gorillas, crocodiles, and tidle waves on his way to school. His teacher does not believe him and punishes him for being late to school. The teacher ends up finding out the truth because he gets held up on the ceiling by a big hairy gorilla.

Text and image: The text and the images correlate together. Both the text and the images are absolutely hilarious.

Literary Devices: flashback, irony, figurative language, and personification

[Andy Verschoyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

economic, precise drawing, every line a detail which adds value, cover dark, inside cover almost poetic, teacher a great shark/crocodile/beetle with predatory teeth, tiny drenched boy, dumb as no mouth, large clear letters are pro-reading.

images of the teacher look like a francis bacon pope, or edvard munch scream, a primaeval creature.

vocabulary choice is simple and carefully chosen. john patrick is always on the road to learn - aren't we all?

when his imagination kicks in the colour palette changes....warm, bright, background filled in.

john patrick happily writes his lines, never questioning authority....

in the final image the teacher is finally human - and learning. JP has learned his lesson too and continues "along the road to learn" - NB not to learning.

[Imogen Turner-Stangroom. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very interesting to read. I enjoyed the way the child in the story was very imaginative with the stories he had made up for why he was late. I also liked the way though it portrays that it is not good to lie and there will be sanctions or consequences for doing so (writing lines), as telling lies is not good.

[Alison Durbin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book humorous, and I think children everywhere will too. I also liked how this book could be used for beginning readers due to its repetitive text and predictability. For this reason, I can see myself purchasing this book for my classroom.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pink Floyd storytime idea

[Rebecca Gale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great fun

[Marcie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this and can see pairing it with other books of excuses.

[Shelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspired some great creative writing from my class

[Ashley Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enchanting illustrations in an imaginative tale of a boy who sets out to learn.

[Scott Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting book, where a little boy gets to be a hero in his own story and a nasty teacher gets what he deserves.

[Emma · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm glad John was vindicated in the end but the teacher was a bit vicious.

[Luisa Knight · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. I'm really not sure what I think of this book. Why was it written? Is it to teach children that teachers can be mean, or to teach teachers that the unexpected can sometimes happen so be nice to your students? Either way, it's odd.

*Quizzical look.*

Ages: 4 - 8

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[Ange · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this. I am partial to children's books with good pacing and repetitive phrasing that lend themselves to reading out loud, and this one is a good example. The teacher's comment about having to hit the boy is out of touch, and even when I was at school in the seventies I don't remember children really getting hit - and my school had lots of misbehaving children!

[Denise Menger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, a good lesson for adults to listen to kids, but maybe a bit too much focus on exacting revenge at the end.

[Jake]

Could be used in PSHE lessons to talk about honesty and trust

[Jason Pym · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely. The kids laughed out loud at the ending. The only reason this is not a five star is the art is not for me, not really a fan. But a great picture book none the less.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

👏🏽👏🏽
Good for you @John Patrick Norman McHennessy.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a picture book about a boy named John Patrick Norman McHennessy. John keeps having out of the ordinary things happen to him as he "sets off along the road to learn" that cause him to be late. He has an encounter with a crocodile, a lion, and a tidal wave. Each time "Sir" (his teacher) thinks he's lying, tells John there was no such thing, and punnishes him. At the end, Sir has an encounter with a gorilla and askes John for help. John tells Sir there's no such thing and goes on about his business.

This is an odd picture book. There is an unusually long name of the main character that is repeated sixteen times. This seems excessive. The illustrations show john as very small and Sir is disproportionally larger than the boy. This helpd show Sir is the stronger, more overbearing person in the story. Most of the illustrations are colorful. However, when John and Sir are interacting, the illustrations have a plain white background. The lack of color or background causes the reader to focus on the characters. I think this book has an interesting way of relating to kids who would be able to relate to an adult not believing them when they are being truthful.

[Anna Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a story about a young boy called John Patrick Norman McHennessy. Every day he tries to get to school on time, but is always late – through no fault of his own. Unfortunately, his school teacher doesn’t believe him, and punishes him by making him write lines for telling lies.
This is an amusing picture story, which will be enjoyed by younger children. John Burningham writes in a very simple and effective way – the story is easy to follow, and easy to relate to; I’m sure many of us can recall instances when, as children, we told adults the truth and they didn’t believe us! It is also fantastically illustrated throughout. I’m sure many children will particularly enjoy, and laugh out loud at, the end of the story when John Patrick Norman McHennessy’s teacher finally gets his comeuppance!

[N · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boy with extremely long name is always late but for good reason. Be it tidal wave, a lion, or crocodile John Patrick Norman McHennessy's teacher seems never to believe them though and puts the poor boy to menial tasks like writing hundreds of sentences or standing in the corner for punishment. It's no wonder that when something rather improbable happens to the teacher himself, John Patrick Norman McHennessy does not come to aid. Serves him right. I appreciate older picture books where justice is allowed to be served, even if it isn't the "polite thing to do".

The backgrounds of some of the illustrations are gorgeous abstractions worth a look in themselves.

[Abbie Baines · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyday John Patrick Norman McHennessy “sets off on the road to learn” but he is delayed. Not because he left something behind or he missed the bus, no, because he comes across the wildest of situations. A crocodile jumps up from the drain, a tidal wave washes him clean off the bridge! How could all these things happen to one boy! The more they happen the more in trouble he gets in. But one day it all changes.

A wonderful story with beautiful illustrations, perfect for KS1 children who want to explore their imagination in literacy or talk about the importance of telling the truth in a PSHE.

[Fjóla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I usually like every single one of John Burningham's numerous, quirky books and this one was no exception. Made my think of Dr. Seuss's classic And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street, although with simpler plot ...

[Vivian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Talk about calamitous adventures on the way to school! Little JPNM is certainly plagued with them -- a crocodile coming out of the gutter drain, a lion hiding in the grass, a tidal wave washing over the bridge. He gets in trouble with his teacher, until one day when the tables are turned and the teacher is captured by a giant ape.

Well, this dilemma may not resonate with the pre-school crowd and the humor is a bit "Brit" (as is the author/illustrator). With a little bit of tweaking a savvy story performer can make this work for a library story time.

[Amar Pai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is John Patrick Norman McHennessy a big fat liar? Did a lion really tear away his satchel? Did a flood really ruin his clothes? Did his teacher really get snatched by an extremely large gorilla? So many questions. Very funny illustrations. I like when a kids book has an unreliable narrator.

Someday I'll make a list of 'very funny drawings of lions in children's books'. J.P.N.M.:T.B.W.W.A.L. will be on there!

[Tricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

clever story about a boy who is late to school for reasons that seem impossible...lion jumping out of the woods...tidal wave. teacher punishes him and then in the end, the teacher is tied up by a gorilla.

[Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Interesting, very arty, pictures. John always has problems with extraordinary animals and natural disasters on his way to school but his school master never believes him. Until the tables turn. I had fonder memories of this book than I do on re-reading it.