The World That Jack Built - Hardcover

Brown, Ruth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0862642698 ISBN 13: 9780862642693

Publisher: Andersen Press, 1990

Synopsis

Cleverly departing from the well-known childhood rhyme, Ruth Brown takes a provocative trip through the world that "Jack" (humankind) has built--as this man-made world might be perceived by a gorgeous black cat. Full-color illustrations.

About this title

From School Library Journal

PreS Up-- This picture book is dramatically subtle in its statement on how we are treating our fragile home, planet Earth. The book begins simply enough with the familiar phrase, "This is the house that Jack built," and ultimately depicts the world around his once-idyllic meadow as one of ecological disaster. Readers are shown, through the double-page watercolor illustrations, the flowering meadows; lush stands of trees; a clear, bubbling stream; and the hills that form the valley . . . "by the house that Jack built." Across from this valley and up the hills, however, one sees the neighboring valley with its lifeless meadows; darkened, dead forest; and sluggish, discolored stream--"next to the factory that Jack built." The pictures are an evocative progression of the story line--from sunny and ideal to dark and forboding--and they deftly emphasize the one or two lines of text at the bottom of the pages. The final endpapers panoramically show the two contrasting valleys. The concept of time (months, years) is not portrayed in the sweeping illustrations, and the depiction of the two "worlds" is abrupt. A more graphic development of this concept (passage of time) is executed in Jeannie Baker's wordless Window (Greenwillow, 1991). Nevertheless, the expansiveness and drama of Brown's illustrations will be an immediate draw. --Mary Lou Budd, Milford South Elementary School, OH
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Andersen Press
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0862642698
• ISBN 13: 9780862642693
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32