JumpStart Adventures 4th Grade: Haunted Island

JumpStart Adventures 4th Grade: Haunted Island is a JumpStart game that was made in 1996 for 4th Graders. It was later replaced by JumpStart Adventures 4th Grade: Sapphire Falls in 2000.

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
thumb|300px|right 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 - The game's villainess and the 4th Grade substitute teacher who turned the kids into monsters and brought them to Haunted Island, which she apparently rules over. Her appearance fits the popular depiction of a witch to a tee, with her having odd skin coloring, black clothing and a pointed hat. Ms. Grunkle appears at the beginning and ending of the game as well as whenever the user enters a new room in her house. Sometime after you finish playing one of the mini-games she flies by on her broomstick to taunt the user with typical villainous comments ("So, you think you're pretty good at my little games? Well, you haven't seen anything yet!") before flying off. She does not have an explained motivation for her actions in the game. The students had been locked up in the attic.
 * Flap - A large, purple bat (based on Peter Lorre) who provides help to the user, most often by explaining how the game's activities are played. He is commonly seen as the mascot for this version of JumpStart 4th Grade.
 * Madame Pomreeda - She gives the player the challenges needed to save each kid. Each time she is visited, Madame Pomreeda gives the user one of four cards, each containing three challenges. After the user finishes with four cards, Madame Pomreeda will use the collected objects to determine what the child's true personality is and say a poem aloud to change the kid back. These poems, the spells she uses to activate her crystal ball and the cards she gives the user all make great use of rhyming couplets. Madame Pomreeda's apparently lives in a circus carriage at the end of the island opposite Ms. Grunkle's house. Although she, her carriage and her magic seem to be very reminiscent of popular depictions of Gypsies, she is blonde-haired and blue-eyed and therefore does not have the physical appearance typically associated with the Roma people. According to Flap, Pomreeda has a "rotten sense of humor," considering the bugs in the Spider's Web activity cute. Her name is an obvious play on palm reading.
 * Repsac - Also referred to as Random Threat by the bugs in the spider web, Repsac is a menacing ghost who serves Ms. Grunkle. He is Ms. Grunkle's loyal servant. He occasionally springs upon the user to ask multiple choice questions that will deplete the user's health if answered incorrectly. Most of his questions seem to involve science and grammar, as well as sentence structure. This is presumably due to the fact that the game does not have activities which specifically address these topics. Repsac is "Casper" spelled backwards, which is quite fitting considering that Repsac's personality is the complete opposite of Casper's. He has yellow teeth and long fingernails which create a hideous personality.
 * 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 4 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 and 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 and the game is over.
 * Frog/Red headed prince - This guy appears in "The Enchanted Forest" as a frog who doesn't like being green and 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, Notre Dame De Paris.
 * Francis - This guy is Semimoto's dad and 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 and right as part of body related articulation
 * 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 and challanges which then break the previous spells.
 * 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 and 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!

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..