Jack's house

PreS-Gr 2-A wonderful twist on an age-old rhyme. This book actually focuses on the building of the house, and the many hands (or paws) that it takes to make it. You see, while Jack the homeowner (a human) takes credit for its construction, it is actually Max, a hardworking general contractor dog, and a number of other skilled canine laborers, who do all the work. So at the end of the story, it's easy to understand why Max gets a little upset at Jack resting on his laurels at the finished site. What he does to Jack results in a laugh-out-loud moment and a neat flip of the ongoing power struggle between builder and owner. Wohnoutka's full-page acrylic paintings are large scale, but are also full of small details for readers to enjoy. The vehicles that drive up to the site delivering materials and excavating are rugged and tough, appealing to the construction enthusiasts, but the soaring house is the centerpiece of the story, and Max's care in building it is obvious. This beguiling book will be a hit both at storytimes and in circulating collections, for those who really want to know how Jack's house got built.-Susan E. Murray, Glendale Public Library, AZ (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

There is a little joke lurking for readers in Beil's twist on the classic cumulative tale of the house that Jack built. This is not to diminish the pleasantly steamrolling construction work or the agreeable narrative presence of Max the dog, whom readers learn honchoed the effort while Jack busied himself elsewhere. Max introduces readers to bulldozers and backhoes and forklifts, and a handful of trucks: cement, rack, boom and dump. These great machines loom on the page, but Wohnoutka has beveled the edges to make them as soft as sponge cake and just as desirable, as they shimmer in the heat of a summer afternoon. The text chugs along with no surprises--"This is the van / that brought the hammock, cozy and snug / where the trees were planted / and the roof was nailed / and the windows were framed..."--until Jack gets his comeuppance and Max gets his just deserts. This book was built for those youngsters with a jones for trucks and other big wheels, and it delivers in spades. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.