The Goosebumps book that's not really a Goosebumps book.
Jack Johnson is tired of constantly being shown up by his frenemy Wilson Schlame, and both of them are constantly competing for the attention of Mia Montez, the cutest girl in their class. One day after a humiliating experience at Mia's birthday party, Jack finds a book with instructions on how to fly, along with a questionable magic dough to eat. Finally, something Wilson can't do! Unfortunately, not only can Wilson fly too, but soon enough the burden of having a superpower soon catches up to the boys.
It is one of the nineteen original series books that was not adapted into the 1995 TV series.
The book provides examples of:
- The Ace: Wilson is ridiculously good at everything - yes, even flying - and he never misses a chance to make sure Jack knows it.
- Alliterative Name: Jack Johnson, and his love interest Mia Montez.
- Backhanded Apology: Wilson before the race.
- Wilson: This is it. I'm really sorry, Jackie.
Jack: Sorry for what?
Wilson: Sorry to have to beat you in front of two billion people!
- Bait-and-Switch:
- When flying for the first time, Jack returns to his home just as his parents arrive. He tries to land in the backyard to avoid them seeing him, but his father then announces that he saw something. It turns out that he thought he spotted a condor, which his mother replied that they are rare.
- Again, the second time Jack flies away from home and arrives back, he could hear his father mention that he searched everywhere and did not know where else to look. But it turns out that he was actually talking about looking for a client whom has actual talent.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Jack and Wilson each read a book and consume a homemade dough that promises humans the power of flight. They become reluctant celebrities as a result, and learn to regret it.
- Bowdlerise: The 2018 ebook alters Jack's story about a past client of his dad's, removing references to her being "crazy" and a "real nut".
- Cat Up a Tree: One of the neighbors announces that her kitten is stuck up on a high branch and will not come down. This prompts Jack and Wilson to race up the tree to try and get it, again, to impress Mia. Jack almost grabs the cat, but he ends up falling and landing in the arms of Wilson, much to his utter embarrassment. Even more so when Wilson was the one who ends up saving the kitten.
- Celebrity Is Overrated: This is the moral to the story, as Jack and Wilson both learn the hard way, not having any time or privacy to themselves after they become famous for their flying ability.
- Comedic Underwear Exposure: While playing Twister at the birthday party, Jack has to stretch his legs unusually wide to get to a spot on the game cloth. This causes his shorts to rip open, exposing his briefs, which according to Wilson were Superman boxers. The rest of the party explodes with laughter (including Mia, who shrieks like a maniac), and Jack almost rushes out of the house because of this if she had not convinced him to stay (which turns out to be only for a brief moment).
- Competition Freak: Wilson. The real plot of the book is kicked off when he insists on having a flying race with Jack, exposing their abilities to the world and ending their normal lives as they know them.
- Covers Always Lie: The back cover blurb summary heavily implies that the magic mixture the protagonist, Jack, uses to make himself fly was cursed or had some sort of supernatural consequence, but the problems he really faces are more based in reality.
- Didn't Think This Through: While on his second flight around California, Jack ends up landing very far from Malibu and encounters two police officers. He thinks that he can get a ride home and asks them for one. But when they start asking him questions and tell him to get in the car, Jack realizes that this was a bad decision, so he takes off from the ground and flies away, much to the astonishment of the officers below.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: When Jack is about to eat a hot dog, Wilson decides to show him up by eating a foot-long instead.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: At the climax, during a huge televised flying race, Jack pretends to lose his ability to fly so he can finally retreat from the spotlight and spend time with the girl he secretly loves while Wilson is forced to spend the rest of his life with the heavy burden of fame.
- Floorboard Failure: While Jack was exploring the desolate Dorsey house, the wooden planked-floor underneath him broke and gave way, sending him falling down to the basement. Thankfully, because the floor down there was soft and spongy from the dampness, Jack wasn't injured.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: Despite implications that the flying formula had supernatural powers from the back cover blurb, the story has no traditional horror elements or monsters. Instead, it is scary in the real-world sense, a story about the price of fame and competition, showing that talent is often exploited by the greedy (Jack's father is an agent who puts his son in cheesy car commercials when he learns that his son can fly while Jack's rival, Wilson, has his own tv show), how celebrities can be "trapped" because of constant media attention and obsessed fans, and the government wanting to know the secrets of Applied Phlebotinum for the good of the country (allegedly). It plays out more like a supernatural satire on the burden of being a celebrity and American's society obsession with success and being famous. Even the usual twist ending is a positive one.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Rather than any supernatural threat, the "villains" are the people who won't let Jack and Wilson live their own lives now that their famous.
- Jaw Drop:
- The police officers whom offered Jack a ride home on the freeway react this way when he suddenly takes off out of there. They even jump out of the car in shock.
- The same thing happens to Mr. Grossman, the coach in charge of the race that Wilson put together in front of the school. He just looks at them both, utterly speechless.
- Mundanger: The book teaches readers that sometimes fear isn't found with ghosts, monsters, vampires, aliens from other planets, or freaky creatures. It can be found in people who want to exploit others' talents, obsessed fans who hound celebrities, and government agents who want people for scientific study.
- Never Recycle a Building: The place where Jack hides after Mia's party, the abandoned Dorsey house. It used to be one of the most beautiful beach houses in Malibu. Now, it's been an abandoned wreck for years. The inside of it is filled with lone belongings, one of which is a book on flying lessons, which Jack finds and is taught how to fly.
- Parental Neglect: Jack's parents. They do love him but they refuse to take notice of how miserable they're making their son's life after they find out he can fly and start using up all his time to film TV commercials and won't even let him leave the house unless he's wearing the cheesy superhero costume that he wears when filming commercials.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: While doing strange exercises in order to fly, Jack is involved in one that involves difficult flexibility, and he gets stuck in a position that leaves his left foot on his right shoulder and his right leg tucked behind his head. As he's struggling to get out of this awkward pose, his friends Ethan and Ray come by and see him this way.Ray: What - are - you - doing?
- Puppy Love: A rare instance of a love triangle (between Jack, his rival Wilson and their crush Mia) featuring prominently in the story. Jack wins - Wilson is overwhelmed by the fame of being "the boy who can fly" and is forced to leave town, giving Jack the chance to get closer to Mia.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Wilson humiliates him one too many times at Mia's birthday party, Jack runs out of the house in frustration.
- Smug Snake: Wilson. Every chapter he appears in has him upstaging Jack and feeling very superior to him. That is, until the last chapter, in which Wilson is stuck as a flying celebrity and unable to escape to a normal life like Jack now has.
- Stunned Silence: To announce to the world that he and Jack could fly, Wilson asks Mr. Grossman to organize a race between the two boys in front of all the students at Malibu High School. And after they perform, there was no clapping or cheering at all. The children all just stare at them, shocked.
- Swarm of Rats: In the Dorsey home basement after getting the book on flying, Jack encounters a sea of gray rats coming towards him, much to his horror. After fending them off, he escaped from that place.
- Tempting Fate: When Jack is invited by Mia over the phone for rollerblading, Jack is interested, because he can rollerblade better than even Wilson. But then she tells him that he got a new pair and is doing great on them. This leaves Jack very disappointed and he declines.
- Throwing the Fight: When challenged to one more race against Wilson, Jack plummets from the sky. It's assumed that he simply lost the power to fly... except he never did. He knew that faking the loss of his power would cause people to stop paying attention to him, leaving their eyes locked on Wilson. Wilson gets the burden of being famous. Jack gets Mia and a return to his quiet life.
- Training from Hell: After revealing himself to the world that he can fly, Jack is forced to go through this by the military. They put him under intense questioning, make him do plenty of normal gymnastics, and have him do plenty of dizzying directions while flying. By the time he is done with this, his father mentions that the whole procedure took 10 hours, and he did not expect it to go that long. This technique presumably happens to Wilson, and after Jack pretends to have lost his ability to fly, the government continues to experiment and test Wilson.
- The Triple: In the book of Flying Lessons, it mentions that the ability for human flight involves three things: the daring to try, an imagination that soars, and a good mixing bowl.
- Valentine's Day Episode: A portion of the book is set on the birthday of a girl who was born on Valentine's Day. The book also happens to be one of the few that is focused on romance.
- Watch Out for That Tree!: Jack is demonstrating to Mia that he can fly by soaring through the air on his own... only to be extremely dismayed to see Wilson behind him flying as well. He's so shocked that he stops flying involuntarily and slams headfirst into a tree trunk.
- You Are Not Ready: After doing the odd gymnastics and making the weird recipe, Jack turns the next page in the Flying Lessons book, and finds a passage telling him that he is about to embark on a glorious adventure. It then asks the reader if he or she is ready. Jack answers yes repeatedly. The passage then reads, "You are wrong. You are not ready. Turn the page." It then reveals that he simply has to empty enrichening powder in an accompanying envelope into the mixture.
