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Jasper Lizard Wants to Stay Home
Gabe is ready to give up… like always. But today, he’s in for a big surprise.
At breakfast, he wants to impress his mom by making mouthwatering pancakes and then flipping them onto her plate. But his flapjack-flipping skills are stale. When he tosses the biggest, fluffiest cake, he completely misses the target. Now, the tastiest-looking pancake is a broken brown blob on the kitchen floor.
It’s a crummy situation and reminds Gabe of every mess and mistake he’s ever made. He thinks he ruins everything, and decides to quit. But as Gabe is about to hand over the family’s special pancake-flipping utensil to his mom, the utensil talks back! And Gabe stops cold.
Turner is its name, and Turner tells a stunned Gabe he needs to reset his mindset instead of giving up. Turner encourages him to come up with at least one positive thought or idea instead of thinking it’s a hopeless situation. With more reflection, Gabe figures out that maybe he just needs extra practice. He tries another toss, and this time the pancake lands smack in the middle of Mom’s plate!
Gabe’s positive thinking doesn’t last long, however. While doing his homework at the kitchen table, he can’t solve a single math problem and throws his pencil down in a huff. He wants to quit – again. Turner watches Gabe giving up and tells him he needs to relax and flip his thoughts like a pancake so he can see what’s right instead of what’s wrong.
Will “flipping the pancake” in his mind help Gabe break free from all his doom-and-gloom thinking, especially when he finds himself in challenging and difficult circumstances?
Finding the Flipside is a hope-filled, confidence-building story that shows young readers the power of seeing the brighter side of life and turning negative thoughts into positive ones. A special page written specifically for parents, counselors, and educators offers practical tips on helping children be more optimistic, resilient, and confident.
This storybook is part of the popular Gabe book series, which empowers young readers with the skills they need to manage difficult emotions, be more independent, and practice healthy habits.
The series also
At breakfast, he wants to impress his mom by making mouthwatering pancakes and then flipping them onto her plate. But his flapjack-flipping skills are stale. When he tosses the biggest, fluffiest cake, he completely misses the target. Now, the tastiest-looking pancake is a broken brown blob on the kitchen floor.
It’s a crummy situation and reminds Gabe of every mess and mistake he’s ever made. He thinks he ruins everything, and decides to quit. But as Gabe is about to hand over the family’s special pancake-flipping utensil to his mom, the utensil talks back! And Gabe stops cold.
Turner is its name, and Turner tells a stunned Gabe he needs to reset his mindset instead of giving up. Turner encourages him to come up with at least one positive thought or idea instead of thinking it’s a hopeless situation. With more reflection, Gabe figures out that maybe he just needs extra practice. He tries another toss, and this time the pancake lands smack in the middle of Mom’s plate!
Gabe’s positive thinking doesn’t last long, however. While doing his homework at the kitchen table, he can’t solve a single math problem and throws his pencil down in a huff. He wants to quit – again. Turner watches Gabe giving up and tells him he needs to relax and flip his thoughts like a pancake so he can see what’s right instead of what’s wrong.
Will “flipping the pancake” in his mind help Gabe break free from all his doom-and-gloom thinking, especially when he finds himself in challenging and difficult circumstances?
Finding the Flipside is a hope-filled, confidence-building story that shows young readers the power of seeing the brighter side of life and turning negative thoughts into positive ones. A special page written specifically for parents, counselors, and educators offers practical tips on helping children be more optimistic, resilient, and confident.
This storybook is part of the popular Gabe book series, which empowers young readers with the skills they need to manage difficult emotions, be more independent, and practice healthy habits.
The series also
31 pages, Paperback
Published March 20, 2023
About the author
Jennifer Law
6 books2 followersJennifer Law lives in Iowa with her husband and their two sons. She is currently an elementary school counselor. She has held this role for more than 20 years. She loves watching the students grow from kindergarteners to 5th graders.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 2, 2023
I am quite impressed with the team’s ability to understand kids and how adults can intervene when they face problems they can’t express.
This story is one such example. Our Jasper doesn’t want to go to school. He does everything at home in his room but his parents are quite worried. They finally try to intervene and know the root cause of this situation. I am quite impressed with how his father tries to deal with it and finds an acceptable solution for both parties.
I feel the book is quite good and helpful.
The illustrations is simply amazing!
Thank you, Boys Town Press, for the advance reading copy.
This story is one such example. Our Jasper doesn’t want to go to school. He does everything at home in his room but his parents are quite worried. They finally try to intervene and know the root cause of this situation. I am quite impressed with how his father tries to deal with it and finds an acceptable solution for both parties.
I feel the book is quite good and helpful.
The illustrations is simply amazing!
Thank you, Boys Town Press, for the advance reading copy.
March 14, 2026
I could really relate with this book as we went through a spell of Separation Anxiety with my daughter when she first started school as she was not used to going and it took a while for her to settle in, and she used to cry when we left her as she felt so sad not being with us. Sadly she was bullied at school this past year and we had an awful battle to get her to go in, again as she felt safer at home, with some help and support, we have finally got her back to a place where she feels comfortable going in, so we could definitely relate to Jasper and how he was feeling. She also goes in even now in the morning to a little room where she does some jobs for the teachers that need to be done everyday, so there is an incentive for her being there, the same as Jasper has in the book - we just call them her 'jobs'. The story was well written and it was easy to read and understand and I loved the pages where it rhymed. The illustrations in the book were really cute and they brought the story to life. I loved the message that comes through in the story about fixing what you can and reusing the items to make new. It is 5 stars from me for this one - very highly recommended!
April 11, 2023
Hopefully you're here for a review about Jasper Lizard, as the ISBN and artwork suggest - and not the book's listed title at time of my uploading.
Very strong early reader featuring a kid so ignorant of the benefits of school and schoolfriends he just wants to stay home all day, claiming to miss his parents (when they're out at work anyway). The daftness of his motives aside, this must be a problem for there to need a book to help solve it, and I can't think of much better than this – I am always keen to flag up the book that does more than needed to be a success, and this is in rhyming narrative. OK, it might stumble on rhythm and line length here and there, but the verse is generally strong, and really adds to the readability – and dare I suggest re-readability? – of this achievement. Colourful, and very useful, and as I say showing more effort than was strictly demanded – those are the kind of things that take five stars before I've managed to give them.
Very strong early reader featuring a kid so ignorant of the benefits of school and schoolfriends he just wants to stay home all day, claiming to miss his parents (when they're out at work anyway). The daftness of his motives aside, this must be a problem for there to need a book to help solve it, and I can't think of much better than this – I am always keen to flag up the book that does more than needed to be a success, and this is in rhyming narrative. OK, it might stumble on rhythm and line length here and there, but the verse is generally strong, and really adds to the readability – and dare I suggest re-readability? – of this achievement. Colourful, and very useful, and as I say showing more effort than was strictly demanded – those are the kind of things that take five stars before I've managed to give them.
March 22, 2023
I was not impressed with this book it claims its about separation anxiety but its not. There is only one mention of issues involving being away from the parents after multiple mentions of reasons the kid doesn't want to go to school, the kid saying he can just stay home while they go to work proving it isn't about being away from his parents at all, and since he actively tried to leave his parents to go football practice the story makes it clear the kid is not anxious about leaving his parents. Then the end of the story is ways to make the anxiety of school easier but its focusing on separation anxiety that the kid in the story didn't have so doesn't make sense to the book. The illustrations were nice.
March 14, 2023
𝗠𝘆 𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲: Skulking Jasper
𝗙𝗮𝘃 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿: Olga
𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: Easy
𝗧𝘆𝗽𝗲: Children’s
𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗿𝗲: School, Absenteeism, Friends
4/𝟱
🌱THE EXCELLENT
~ The illustrated furniture details
~ Taught ways to engage children on their way & at school
~ Recommendations at the end of the book on how to help children with separation anxiety
Jasper has been avoiding school for a few days well now (like Kokoro - Lonely Castle in the Mirror), he tries all he can to stay home with his parents from feeling sick, to complaining & all in-between. When he meets a new friend, he begins to realise that he can also be comfortable in school & enjoy himself.
✨𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱.
🌱THE MEH
~ Rhymes not fully rhyme-y (they didn’t have to be at all though)
♡🌱 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗺𝗲 ;)
𝗙𝗮𝘃 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿: Olga
𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: Easy
𝗧𝘆𝗽𝗲: Children’s
𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗿𝗲: School, Absenteeism, Friends
4/𝟱
🌱THE EXCELLENT
~ The illustrated furniture details
~ Taught ways to engage children on their way & at school
~ Recommendations at the end of the book on how to help children with separation anxiety
Jasper has been avoiding school for a few days well now (like Kokoro - Lonely Castle in the Mirror), he tries all he can to stay home with his parents from feeling sick, to complaining & all in-between. When he meets a new friend, he begins to realise that he can also be comfortable in school & enjoy himself.
✨𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱.
🌱THE MEH
~ Rhymes not fully rhyme-y (they didn’t have to be at all though)
♡🌱 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗺𝗲 ;)
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews