JumpStart Adventures 4th Grade: Haunted Island

JumpStart Adventures 4th Grade: Haunted Island is a JumpStart game that was made by Knowledge Adventure in 1996. As the title suggests, the game is intended to teach a fourth grade curriculum. It was later replaced by JumpStart Adventures 4th Grade: Sapphire Falls in 2000.

Story & Gameplay
The user is a fourth-grade student, who, fortunately, missed the day of school when the class's substitute teacher was a witch named Ms. Grunkle.

After signing in at the schoolhouse, the user is transported to Haunted Island. With the aid of a large purple bat named Flap & a fortune teller named Madame Pomreeda, the user must rescue the thirteen lost classmates by collecting the students' "most prized possessions" from the island's educational activities. After these possessions, which reveal elements of the kid's personality, are collected, Madame Pomreeda transforms the classmate back with a poem that tells the monster to go away & the child to return.

The user has a limited amount of "health," which is indicated by a candle in the upper left hand corner of the screen. Health is depleted through answering Repsac's questions incorrectly & is indicated by the candle burning down. If the candle burns out, the user is cast into the island's labyrinth, which contains a "fountain of health" that will cause the candle to re-burn &, eventually, grow back to its original size. However, finding one's way out of the labyrinth is difficult.

Earning five thousand points, will earn the user one of the keys to Ms. Grunkle's house. Five keys unlock one door & lead the user into a new room. Whenever a room is entered for the first time, Ms. Grunkle appears & curses the user into the labyrinth. Once the user advances all the way through her house & makes it into her attic, where the rest of the class is locked up, the game is completed. However, if some of the kids are still monsters when the user reaches that attic, Flap informs the user they will have to be changed back before the attic can be entered. Note that it is almost impossible to not have all the keys by the time all the children have been changed back since merely playing the games that will save the kids provide all the points needed, but if you can achieve this by play the games at only low levels & keep getting all the answers right to do this.

Opening
A peaceful schoolhouse with white picket fencing is shown at the beginning with pleasent music and birds flying around...

Suddenly lightning flashes! The schoolhouse and the fence takes on a twisted shape in which bats fly around it and inside the haunted school house, the substitute teacher named Ms. Grunkle, who is really a witch, casts a spell on a frightened girl named Zev Cosmo.

Although Zev's face is blacked out when the effects take place she is turned into a monster! The same thing happens to Wolfgang, then Albert Brayne. Then a half-dozen of frightened students named Violet, Jane Plain, Penny Scilin, James, Tiffany, and Joe, are all turned into monsters one-by-one. Ms. Grunkle flies on her broomstick on the way to her house. Along the way she drops the skeleton toys leading to her home and her magic wand by Madame Pomreeda's carriage.

After that the words "Haunted Island" appear on the screen.

(The other four students not shown in the introduction are: Calvin, Laura, Stanley ZeBlucky, and Debbie.)

Ending
Once the user enters the attic, Ms. Grunkle attempts to transform all the students back into monsters, along with the user.

However, the user produces Ms. Grunkle's magic wand, which protects the kids from the spell. Ms. Grunkle is temporarily shocked that the user has acquired her wand, but then realizes that Madame Pomreeda must be responsible. (The game's opening sequence depicts Ms. Grunkle accidentally dropping her wand next to Pomreeda's carriage.)

With that, Ms. Grunkle acknowledges defeat and flies out the window on her broom. A piece of paper she leaves behind on the floor reveals the schoolhouse being restored to its original state.

Characters

 * Ms. Grunkle
 * Flap
 * Madame Pomreeda
 * Repsac

The Kids
They transformed into monsters when Ms. Grunkle cast spells on them. Each gaining their own unique, horrible, transformed state. They return into human form once the player solves the riddles & challenges which then break the previous spells.

Minor Characters

 * Graveyard Ghost - The glowing soul who is released from his grave every time the player fills the Mad Libs style inscriptions that appear on his tombstone. He serves as a narrator for telling the spooky stories that appear on his tombstone. He has the same style as the late actor, Rodney Dangerfield
 * Grim Reaper - The unseen character who is mentioned a lot by the graveyard ghost. He's similar to Jolly Roger & Ursula. If the player doesn't complete the tombstone in time to save three souls as Madame Pomreeda requests, he'll be on his way to invade the cemetery & the game is over.
 * Frog/Red headed prince - This guy appears in "The Enchanted Forest" as a frog who doesn't like being green & wart covered. The player gets to make a potion to save him, or else Ms. Grunkle will make the situation worse. When the potion is completed three times, the frog transforms into a red-headed prince who speaks with a British accent.
 * Bugs/Spiders - These critters appear in "The Spider Web" who are controlled by Ms. Grunkle. The player gets to spell a word by guiding the spider through each part of the web one by one using the arroes keys on the keyboard to control it's directions.
 * Semimoto - This guy lives in the "Clock Tower" with his family. His mom, Ariel doesn't appear in this game. He plays the piano which makes sounds like an organ when it's in the Treble Clef mode on the easiest level of the game. The player moves his hand by using the mouse to control his articulation. He's a play on Quasimodo who was seen in Victor Hugo's novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
 * Francis - This guy is Semimoto's dad & Ariel's husband who plays the piano with his son, Semimoto. He's controlled by having the player use the mouse to move his hand left & right as part of body related articulation
 * Vampire - A friend of Flap's who was turned into a vampire by accident. He doesn't have an actual name, but the player can control him by using arrow keys through the maze. His only appearance being in said maze, he'll be found resting safe & sound inside his coffin at every point after.
 * Mummy & the cat - They appear in the "Mummy's Tomb". They'll be revealed after the player has eliminated all of the tiles in order to complete the game.
 * Scared animals - They appear all over the scary island, they're actually characters from JumpStart games. See how many you can recognize!

Activities

 * The Spider's Web
 * The Toad Well
 * The Mutant Swamp
 * The Clock Tower
 * The Cemetery
 * The Mummy's Tomb
 * The Vampire Maze
 * The Pirate Ship
 * The Enchanted Forest
 * The Labyrinth
 * The Fountain of Health

Trivia

 * Ms. Grunkle's skin is normally shown as gray but on the icon it's blue.
 * Curiously, she is sometimes referred to as "Mrs. Grunkle," prompting one to wonder whatever became of husband. In her living room is a skeleton who sits around watching the television while holding a remote. Which may have been her husband at one point..