Review by Booklist Review
First published in Nesbit's The Old Nursery Stories 0 (1908), this lively retelling adds character and wit to the timeless fairy tale, and Tavares' large pencil-and-watercolor illustrations, in shades of dusky brown and green, are a fitting accompaniment to the young boy's scary encounter with the giant. There is a bit of Lazy Jack in the small blond kid who doesn't like to work and is so clumsy that he makes a mess when he tries. But after climbing the beanstalk into a new world, he tricks the wicked ogre and brings home the gold. Pictures show the hideous, hairy giant, with bulging stomach, huge hands, and bare feet, surrounded by skulls as he counts his wealth in a dark house, an effective contrast to the small, cozy cottage where Jack and his mother live. The boy who transforms himself on his perilous journey to the sky is a timeless hero. Great for story hours. --Hazel Rochman Copyright 2006 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-This witty, elegant retelling of the beloved English fairy tale, originally published in 1908 in The Old Nursery Stories, uses rich language to depict an endearing, if lazy, ne'er-do-well who turns folly into triumph. Into the traditional story Nesbit injects clever details that make the setting vivid and bring the characters to life. Jack's cottage "had dormer windows and green shutters whose hinges were so rusty that the shutters wouldn't shut. Jack had taken some of them to make a raft with." The narrative is fairly true to the familiar story with the notable absence of any fee-fi-fo-fums (instead, the giant smells "fresh meat"), and includes a guiding fairy who tells Jack the story of his father who once ruled this land, only to be killed by the giant who imprisoned the faithful subjects in the trees. Tavares's realistic pencil-and-watercolor paintings feature a muted palette of grays, greens, and browns, with a vintage look suitable to the old tale. Gold is used to particularly good effect, lighting up fairy glow, eggs, harp, and the giant's crown, as well as suggesting sunlight on the landscape. There is great variety in the page layout. Perspective, too, changes as the giant's head takes up one whole page; another spread features the fallen behemoth with his huge feet dominating the foreground. Front and back endpapers are stunning, panoramic views depicting the beginning and end of the story. What a treat to have Nesbit's delightful interpretation as its own picture book.-Marie Orlando, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
First published in 1908, Nesbit's sprightly retelling makes for a fine read-aloud. All of the familiar elements from the original tale appear, with the addition of a fairy who gives Jack advice. Pencil and watercolor illustrations, varied in perspective and rendered in brown, sepia, and green, are satisfyingly old-fashioned in tone. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Nesbit's wry 1908 telling casts Jack as a dreamy lad more adept at composing poems about "the Dignity of Labor" than engaging in it. She enlivens the familiar plot with chatty speculation, nimble description and a tidy resolution. The giant's realm is a desolate landscape of withered trees and streams gone dry. A fairy defines Jack's quest, revealing that Jack's unknown father, ruler of that very land, had been killed by the giant, who imprisoned his subjects in the trees. The fairy confirms that Jack's mission is "the one particular dream" that he heretofore "never could quite dream." Jack's thievery of the golden egg-laying hen, money bags and magic harp, laid out as a righteous corrective to the giant's usurpation, is ably facilitated by the giant's wife, "whose only fault was that she was too ready to trust boys." Tavares's handsome pencil-and-watercolor pictures deliver a satisfyingly scary giant, his shirt bloodstained, his comb-over topped with the stolen, too-small crown, his house strewn with the skulls of victims. No source notes, but thoroughly satisfying nonetheless. (Picture book/folktale. 5-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
