Jack and the Beanstalk

by Richard Walker, Niamh Sharkey (Illustrator), Richard Hope (Narrated by)

Overview

Climb the beanstalk with Jack in this quirky take on the traditional tale.

When there is no food in the cupboard, Jack goes to market to sell Daisy the cow. But rather than money, Jack procures magic beans and the promise of adventure.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781782854166
Publisher:	Barefoot Books
Publication date:	04/30/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 10.75(h) x 0.20(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Richard Walker (1943-1999) was born in Shropshire, England, and worked in a number of different professions before becoming a writer, freelance broadcaster and professional storyteller. He traveled extensively around Britain and America, sharing his tales in a variety of venues, from folk festivals, schools and theaters to private homes.

Award-winning Irish illustrator Niamh Sharkey works in oils on a gessoed textured background to create the richness in color that has quickly established her as a world class illustrator. She graduated in 1994 with First Class Honors from the College of Marketing and Design, Dublin, and was chosen as "Student of the Year" in the Graphics category by the Society of Designers in Ireland. Niamh now lives in Dublin, Ireland.

Richard Hope is an English actor who has worked extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, London, as well as his on-screen roles. He lives in London, England.

Editorial Reviews

Like Beneduce and Spirin in their adaptation of this staple (reviewed above), Walker (The Barefoot Book of Pirates) and Sharkey (The Gigantic Turnip) try to mediate its violence. But where Beneduce and Spirin lessen the impact of the violence by providing Jack with a motive, Walker and Sharkey soften the tale itself. The plot follows tradition; the big change comes in the giant's refrain, now "Fee, fi, fo, fum! I smell the blood of a stinky man!" The giant speaks these words just once, rather than in a terror-heightening sequence, and he certainly never threatens to grind Jack's bones to make his bread. Having removed much of the suspense, the text proceeds to a tepid conclusion in which Jack uses the stalk to catapult his foe "into space.... And, as far as I know, he's still there." Sharkey, working in semitransparent earth-tone oils, envisions the giant as a flat-headed Frankenstein with an oversize jaw and a serrated underbite, and Jack as an elfin type with an eggshell-white face and a cranberry-red jester's cap. It's a contemporary, puckish look, one that tells the audience not to take the story too seriously. Ages 4-8. (Oct.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

K-Gr 3-This retelling of the English folktale departs in many ways from the well-known version by Joseph Jacobs, and although Walker tells a consistent and humorous story, it is ultimately devoid of much of the suspense and characterization of the original. Jack trades his cow to a strange man for six magic beans, for which he's "lost the instructions." They do what readers expect them to, and Jack climbs the beanstalk to a castle inhabited by a giant and a "little old woman." In a single visit, the boy steals a sack of gold, taking along the golden-egg-laying goose and the little old lady because they ask to come, and the singing harp that gives him away. At the bottom, he uses the rope that he used to lower the bag of gold (a complicated addition to the plot) to catapult the giant into outer space. Jacobs's Jack was not altogether a good child-but the giant was many times worse, and it took a devious mind like Jack's to get the better of him. Walker's Jack is very nice, but lacks motivation and is not very interesting. The book is nicely designed, and Sharkey's oil-and-gesso illustrations in a muted palette are well composed, but the figures (with big heads and feet, and dot-and-line faces) are flat and expressionless. Steven Kellogg's illustrated retelling (Morrow, 1991) is still available for those who need a picture-book version of the tale; this one is pretty but unsatisfying. Think twice before you trade your cow for it.

Library Journal

Storyteller Richard Walker stays close to tradition by departing from it. Careening off classic written versions of Jack and the Beanstalk, Walker regales his readers with an energetic, far from literary retelling.

Bulletin of the Center for Childrens Books

Walker's modernized retelling of Jack's adventure up the beanstalk makes a fine counterpoint to the Beneduce/Spirin collaboration (see review, above); it's been tamed and trimmed to a jaunty pace and filled with lively humor. All of the standard elements are present: Jack, his mother, the cow, the beans. There have been changes, however, e.g., Jack has lost his nationality, with blood that no longer smells of an Englishman. The objects of his desire — the sack of gold, the goose, and the harp — are hauled away in one clean sweep, rather than a daring, maturing series of raids. He also takes the old crone who lives with the giant, adding a touch of virtue. Finally, the beanstalk is not chopped down, but used as a catapult to hurl the giant into galactic orbit. Thus beveled and streamlined, the tale has lost some of its pungency, but, with artwork that has the color quality of old frescoes, and characters full of personality (even with dots for eyes), this remains a rousing adventure. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews