Jack Outwits the Giants - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689839022 ISBN 13: 9780689839023

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry, 2002

Synopsis

When a big strapping woman offers him shelter in a farmhouse during a torrential downpour, Jack, along with his faithful hound, is forced to outsmart her giant two-headed husband when he decides to have Jack for his supper, in an entertaining Appalachian tall tale.

About this title

About the Author:

Paul Brett Johnson grew up in the small town of Mousie, Kentucky, listening to stories about Jack, the boy-hero who stars in a series of Appalachian folk tales. In Jack Outwits the Giants, he has drawn on this rich Appalachian heritage to bring the humor and energy of the Jack stories to life.

Paul Brett Johnson is a two-time recipient of the Kentucky Bluegrass Award and the creator of more than fifteen picture books, including Fearless Jack, which was named one of the New York Public Library's "One Hundred Books for Reading and Sharing" and The Cow Who Wouldn't Come Down, which was a School Library Journal Best Book and an ABA Kids' Pick of the Lists. Paul lives in Lexington, Kentucky, where he is currently at work on his third Jack Tale.

From School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 2-One stormy day, young Jack takes shelter at the cabin of a pair of giants and uses his wits to escape with his hide. The giantess and her two-headed husband want him for a snack in the worst way but after he cleverly survives their first dastardly plan, they're afraid he might be "witched," so they set him some tasks to prove himself unfit for consumption. By "milking" a rock (really a milkweed pod) and ingenuously offering to move a stream, he astonishes his captors. Then Jack convinces them to hide in the well while the sheriff and posse investigate his disappearance. And, as "a giant's well hasn't got a bottom to it," that pair of giants "is still falling, like as not." Jack, in his cap and britches, is an ordinary lad, especially in contrast to the towering giantess and to her hirsute husband. The acrylic illustrations firmly ground this tall tale in Appalachia and capture its folksy feel-from Jack's bemused hound-dog companion to the giant's checkerboard pants. The liberal use of similes and metaphors, as well as the moderate but humorous dialect, assure a fun read-aloud. From the eye-catching cover of the two-headed giant licking his lips as he contemplates Jack to the author's note briefly tracing the "Jack Tale" tradition, this down-home yarn is a fine sequel to Fearless Jack (McElderry, 2001) and a solid stand-alone addition to trickster-tale storytimes.
Carol Ann Wilson, Westfield Memorial Library, NJ
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0689839022
• ISBN 13: 9780689839023
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Johnson Paul Brett