Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* In this reworking of the familiar cumulative tale, young Jack lives with his menagerie of tropical animals in a fabulous tree house by the sea. He has built a fantastic construction of ladders, knotted swinging vines, thatched-roofed platforms, balconies, and swinging bridges into the trunk and boughs of a giant jungle tree. Verburg's enjoyable text is perfectly paced as she introduces a grinning fly that is snapped at by a lizard that is pecked at by a parrot that is in turn swatted by a cat . . . until all the animals are brought up short by Jack's ringing of a bell. It announces storytime, and then Good night to all the things Jack made, as he goes to sleep in his treetop hammock. Each acrylic spread is alive with brilliant colors and delightful pop-up-in-your-face figures, and imaginative details abound throughout: ingenious pulleys that lift pineapples, a fan operated by a bunny using a foot treadle, and a cascading triple birdbath. Teague weaves his magic into every scene, making this a delight for incipient Robinson Crusoes.--Gepson, Lolly Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
An enormous banyan tree provides the foundation for an industrious boy's idyllic seaside aerie in this version of the familiar cumulative rhyme. From a long-lens perspective, Jack's tree house calls to mind the classic board game Chutes and Ladders: pulley systems, swings, and rope ladders link multiple decks built among the tree's branches. Up close, readers see fun details that include a hammock, a ship's steering wheel, and a lively menagerie of animal pals-a veritable tropical food chain from fly to monkey, with some helpful squirrels and rabbits along for fun. While Teague's (the How Do Dinosaurs... series) lush jungle compositions swoop around the structure to show the animals in playful pursuit, Verburg (The Kiss Box) provides an equally entertaining journey. Entirely the master of his island domain, Jack calls the animals to order ("But what is that sound?/ Jack's ringing a bell!/ It's story time!/ They know it well") as the story makes its way to a bedtime conclusion. Readers will envy Jack's self-assured confidence and his abode itself, which is worthy of Swiss Family Robinson. Ages 3-6. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-One might suppose that this title is a riff on the cumulative rhyme of a similar name. Jack has built a tree house and is visited by a fly, lizard, and parrot, each dutifully invoked as the verse grows longer. Verburg has not left it at that, however. By the fourth page turn, she has inserted extra text. Readers are suddenly informed that Jack has assembled swings, a ladder, and a birdbath in the tree, but those real-estate enhancements are never mentioned again. The gathering of animals continues until the youngster declares it's storytime, reads a copy of this book aloud, watches the sunset, and just about everyone goes to bed. It's difficult to see the point of all this. Jack's tree appears to be a banyan, and most of the animals are tropical. The detail in Teague's color-saturated acrylics varies from one animal to the next. The frilled lizard's head is appropriately scaly, but the monkeys are far more cartoony. Jack, himself, is a redhead with a tabby cat and a shaggy sheepdog for pets. Of course, the conceit is pure fantasy, but the entire effort seems hastily thrown together.-Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Library, NY (c) Copyright 2014. 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
This version of the old cumulative rhyme "The House that Jack Built" grabs kids right from the start: the cover shows a small boy waving from one of many balconies in a multilevel structure built in a colossal tree. The book begins with "the fly / that buzzes by / the tree house / that Jack built"; on the next page, a sleepy lizard "snaps at the fly / that buzzes by." Children will be on the lookout for the next animal, as they each appear in the previous picture, and they will also want a chance to pore over the acrylic paintings that fill every page. Jack has indeed created "marvelous things" in his tree house, from a rabbit-powered fan for the hammock, where a monkey lounges, to an ingenious Rube Goldberg device with pulleys and a waterwheel. The animals stop chasing and pecking and swatting at one another when Jack rings the bell signaling the beginning of storytime, at which he reads themThe Tree House that Jack Built. Both text and pictures expand out beyond the tree to the whales in the sea before Jack and his cat settle down to sleep in a peaceful ending. A great storytime book with its bouncy rhymes and big pages, it is also a good book to share one-on-one, rewarding repeated porings-over of the pictures. susan dove lempke (c) Copyright 2014. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
