Study Guide

For

“Just in Time” series

Book One

Jerks!

By

Matt Dunster

 

 

Michael and Rozalyn Mansfield

Seeds of Discovery Center

119 Robinson Road

Huntsville, TX  77320

936-291-0863

seedsofdiscovery@yahoo.com

 

 

 

Introduction 

            The novel Jerks! was written by the high school student Matt Dunster after his class had read the book Yanked! by Nancy Kress, the first in the “Out of Time” series developed under the auspices of the major science fiction writer David Brin. This series uses the concept that members of a Utopian society of the future would “yank” various young people from different eras in their past in order to assist them in solving major crises; the teens from the past provide insights, courage and imagination they developed in their own societies and are therefore able to heroically triumph and help the Utopian society to continue to flourish.

After reading Yanked! in a class project that we worked with as volunteer assistants to the teacher, Matt was very impressed and intrigued with the ideas brought up, and became eager to write his own fictional work as a tribute not only to Yanked! but also to many other science fiction works dealing both with time travel and the Utopian theme. He wrote Jerks!, a story in which three teens from the beginning of the twenty-first century are brought through time to a future society that is determined to achieve perfection. In Jerks!, these three teens, Howie, Tino, and Tiffany, discover what they need to do to save the society they have found themselves in, and in so doing, learn to be heroes.

Matt also was inspired to write science fiction because he had read and enjoyed novels by David Brin, including Earth, The Practice Effect, The Postman and novels in Brin’s “Uplift” series. The dynamic ways these books present major ideas about science, culture, and what it means to be human caused Matt to start thinking more deeply about these issues and want to explore them in a fictional work of his own.

Jerks!, furthermore, is not a sequel to Yanked!, or a work set in the same fictional universe. Instead it stands as a separate, self-contained work, with its own characters and background. Matt chose to write his own separate story not only to avoid any infringement on the “Out of Time” series but also to give other students the opportunity to write their own sequels and companion books connected to his work. Being a student himself, he wanted to encourage other students to write science fiction dealing with the themes he found so interesting and inspiring, and he also felt they might enjoy adding to the world and concepts he had created. Matt has expressed the hope to us that many other students will have fun writing “Just in Time” stories of their own. He has asked us to pass on only one proviso. When he developed the plot for Jerks!, he chose to write a story in which the characters solve problems through ingenuity and intelligence, using totally non-violent methods. He asks that all sequels and companion stories in the series follow this guideline, avoiding plots that involve violent conflict. Instead, even when a violent solution appears inevitable in a particular story, he would like the writer to work out a plausible, successful nonviolent alternative.

With this in mind, and offering every encouragement to students to attempt their own stories in the “Just in Time” series, we have appended suggestions for possible sequels at the conclusion of this study guide. 

Environment and Ecology

Disease and Plague Problems

Causes of War and Conflict

Defining What Makes Us Human 

The Great Harmony and its implications

Diversity in human culture: cuisines of the world

Diversity in human culture: fashion and adornment 

Artificial Intelligence

Space Development

Sequels to Jerks!: “Jerks in Progress”

             Students are encouraged to write their own sequels to Jerks!. Matt Dunster was recently considering writing a sequel himself, but has since decided that this might narrow the choices of other students interested in writing their own sequels and he wants them to have the chance to be extremely imaginative and inventive taking off from the start he has given them.

            Here are general ideas for possible sequels; each idea could be developed in many different ways, and students are also encouraged to come up with new ideas of their own.