Jack and the Beanstalk - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0316375624 ISBN 13: 9780316375627

Publisher: Little Brown & Co, 1998

Synopsis

A boy climbs to the top of a giant beanstalk where he uses his quick wits to outsmart a giant and make his and his mother's fortune.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 4-- A dramatically illustrated story that sets Jack in a rainy, dark England in the late Middle Ages. Howe's vivid two-page spreads fill the pages , while the text is inset in framed white space with, usually, a smaller illustration that advances the action. He contrasts Jack's thatched hovel and ragged tunic with the bright cloud country with its towering, turreted castle and almost dandified, armorclad giant. Howe's retelling, however, is somewhat mundane. The magic hen episode precedes that of the gold coins--a less logical sequence since the hen's inexhaustible supply of eggs eliminates the need for the coins. Compared to Pearson's recent retelling (S. & S., 1989) in which Jack "felt the beanstalk lurch and shudder, and knew that the Ogre was following him," Howe's version seems flat--He "could hear the giant climbing slowly down after him." Jack's popularity with young readers is such that many libraries will want to have both books, but Pearson's version, while not as illustratively impressive, will be more useful. --Louise L. Sherman, Anna C. Scott School, Leonia, NJ
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

"Varying visual perspectives admirably communicate the magic of the beans, the hen, the gold and the singing harp," said PW. Ages 6-10.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Little Brown & Co
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0316375624
• ISBN 13: 9780316375627
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Howe John