The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler

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Each chapter of the text begins with a joke. This is a great way to engage readers and also helps to break up the text up a little.

The book is written in first person and predominantly narrated by Tyke. It is really interesting to note that Tyke's gender is not revealed until the very end of the book. This is a really fascinating move by Gene Kemp and helps to highlight to the reader how important it is to avoid gender stereotyping. It is very likely that most readers will assume Tyke is male as she gets up to a lot of mischief and engages in activities that are more commonly associated with boys. It is great to see a book that, despite its age (published 1977), attempts to challenge expected gender roles. According to Mary Cadogan in Twentieth-Century Children's Writers, "This truly innovatory book gives new dimensions to the day-school story, and an authoritative boost to feminism. More convincingly than any other juvenile book it demolishes many accepted ideas about aspirational and experiential differences between boys and girls." She added: "The exactly appropriate first person narrative is punctuated by consciously dire playground rhymes and jokes which sharpen its pacy succinctness." I can't agree. Danny Price must be sent to the Russell Dene school they have the facilities to deal with children of that type." Each chapter begins with a suitably juvenile joke, such as: Q: "Why do you forget a tooth once it's been pulled?" A: "It goes right out of your head!" Bittner, Robert (2016). "(Im) Possibility and (in) visibility: Arguing against 'just happens to be' in Young Adult literature". Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture. 1 (2): 199–214. doi: 10.1386/qsmpc.1.2.199_1. ISSN 2055-5695.Sutherland, Zena (1980). "The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler (review)". The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. 33 (10): 193.

The author adapted the novel as a play, published under the same title by Oxford in 2003 (Oxford Playscripts, ), "tailored to support the KS3 Framework for Teaching English". A postscript written from the point of view of Tyke's teacher, Mr Merchant, describes how the old bell tower collapsed and Tyke ended up in hospital with a broken arm, a broken ankle, bruising and concussion. In the hospital, Tyke confesses to Mr Merchant about cheating in the verbal reasoning test and tells him all about the final term at school - namely her efforts to help Danny. Mr Merchant enjoys Tyke's story and decides to write it down. Gene Kemp was born in Wigginton, Staffordshire in 1926. She grew up near Tamworth, Staffordshire, and went to Exeter University. She became a teacher and taught at St Sidwell's School in Exeter in the 1970s. Mallan, Kerry (2009). Gender Dilemmas in Children's Fiction. UK: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-24455-9. In the book Twentieth-Century Children's Writers, Mary Cadogan writes how Tyke Tiler "demolishes many accepted ideas about aspirational and experiential differences between boys and girls." [11] Although the novel does challenge gendered stereotypes with its twist reveal at the end, in a chapter on the representation of girls in literature in the book Teaching English, Susan Brindley argues that Tyke Tiler "is, in effect, presenting non-stereotypical girls as abnormal – and as such supports the dominant ideology." Brindley writes that the idea of Tyke's real gender being a revelation reinforces "sexist roles in society". She states how some readers feel that they have been "made fools of" when discovering Tyke's true gender. [12] Kery Mallan in the book Gender Dilemmas in Children’s Fiction calls this discovery a "narrative deceit". [13] Bhagirath Khuman and Madhumita Ghosal write that reactions like these to Tyke Tiler demonstrate the strange notion that "supposedly male characteristics are only suitable to boys' characters and that that is how they should be portrayed." [14] Furthermore, they write that rather than being a "narrative deceit", the revelation of Tyke's gender shows how readers have to challenge their own false beliefs about gender roles. [8] Going beyond cisgender interpretations of Tyke's gender, some analyses of Tyke Tiler interpret the protagonist as transgender or reference the novel in broader critiques of transgender fiction. [15] [16]

Jones, Terry (1984). "The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tiler (review)". Children's Literature in Education. 15 (3): 159. Gene Kemp was born in Wigginton, Staffordshire in 1926 [2] grew up near Tamworth, Staffordshire, and went to Exeter University. She became a teacher and taught at St Sidwell's School in Exeter in the 1970s. [3] An interesting children's book from the 1970s, which succeeds largely on the strength of it's fine grasp of child psychology and language, and its naturalistically rambling, inconclusive plot. I liked it as a child because it felt less like a "story", and more like a slice of life of a real person - albeit an interesting slice. And re-reading it as an adult, I feel much the same way. One afternoon, Tyke goes to the headteacher's office and overhears some teachers discussing the possibility of Danny going to a special school instead of the local comprehensive. Tyke then decides to help Danny to cheat in the annual verbal reasoning test to ensure they can both attend the same local secondary school, Dawson Comprehensive. Danny scores high enough to avoid being sent to special school, but Tyke accidentally scores too high and the headmaster is keen Tyke to attend prestigious Dorrington School for gifted children, much to the joy of Tyke's mother. Tyke's father, a local councillor campaigning for re-election, is against privilege and is reluctant to send his child there. Tyke tries to reveal the truth about cheating on the test, but gives up after nobody believes her, and realises that she will not have to attend this establishment. Gene Kemp was awarded an Honorary MA from Exeter University in 1984. She lived in Exeter and had three children – a daughter, Judith, from her first marriage to Norman Pattison, which ended in divorce, and another daughter, Chantal, and a son, Richard, from her second marriage, to Allan Kemp, who died in 1990. She had three grandchildren and two great-grandsons. Kemp died at the age of 88 on 4 January 2015.