The Trouble with Jenny's Ear Summary
Oliver Butterworth

Everything you need to understand or teach The Trouble with Jenny's Ear by Oliver Butterworth.

  • The Trouble with Jenny's Ear Summary & Study Guide

The Trouble with Jenny's Ear Summary

The Pearsons of Pearson's Corner, a Massachusetts hamlet, are introduced to the era of electronics by the energetic experiments of their two young sons.

Some tampering with one of these experiments has a strange and unpredictable result: Jenny, the small daughter of the family, discovers that she can hear people's thoughts. The three Pearson children and the adults— Mr. and Mrs. Pearson and Uncle Harold—suddenly find themselves confronted with an extraordinary situation, and their reactions to it are all somewhat unusual.

The Pearsons' predicaments are common problems of everyday life, though considerably exaggerated. Because of electronic bugging and because the daughter can read everyone's thoughts, privacy becomes an issue that the family must resolve. When it appears that the pristine hill next door may soon become a teeming housing development, the family must reassess the importance of their living space. As the family meets these...

(read more from the Short Guide)