The Magic Mustache

by Gary Barwin, Stéphane Jorisch (Illustrator)

In this hair-raising spoof of Jack and the Beanstalk, Gary Barwin tells the story of a nosey nose that knows to follow his nose. On the way to market, the nose trades a pair of glasses for a magic mustache. During his adventures, he steals a magic mouth's stash of treasure right out from under its nose and discovers that a nose with a good head on its shoulders can rise to great heights. This hilarious book contains the best of bad puns and clever wordplay, and will have kids and parents laughing out loud.

Genres: Picture Books, Art

Paperback

First published September 1, 1999

About the author

GARY BARWIN is a writer, composer, and multidisciplinary artist and the author of 21 books of poetry, fiction and books for children. His bestselling novel [Book: Yiddish for Pirates] won the 2017 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and was a Governor General’s Award and Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist and has recently been longlisted for the Leacock Medal. His latest poetry collection is No TV for Woodpeckers His work has appeared widely in journals, including Poetry (Chicago), The Walrus and the Paris Review blog. A finalist for the National Magazine Awards (Poetry), he is a three-time recipient of Hamilton Poetry Book of the Year, and has also received the Hamilton Arts Award for Literature. He is was Writer-in-Residence at Western University and the London Public Library and is currently Art Forms Writer-in-residence for at-risk youth and will be Writer-in Residence at McMaster University and the Hamilton Public Library in 2017-2018. Barwin lives in Hamilton, Ontario and at garybarwin.com

Reviews

[NS-Christine Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting new version of the traditional Jack and the Beanstalk story. All of the characters are parts of the body!

Nose and his parents mother eye and father eye are very poor. Nose is sent to the market to sell the family's glasses for some food. When the nose gets to the market, he meets an old ear. The ear talks the nose into trading the glasses for a magic mustache. When the nose gets home, his parents are very angry. They throw the mustache out the window. The next morning, the nose sees that the mustache is indeed magical, for it grew into a beard! The beard told the nose to climb him. When the nose got to the top of the beard, he saw that he was at the castle of a giant mouth! The nose was able to escape from the big mouth, and climb back down the beard. He had taken the mouth's golden toothbrush! He trimmed the beard, but the next day the beard had grown again! The nose climbed the beard again and this time left with a magical straw! Will the nose press his luck and climb the beard once again?

[Ch_jank-caporale · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking for a fantasy, instead I found a crazy take on Jack and the Beanstalk. In this version, a nose lives with two eyes who have only an old pair of glasses between them. When money runs out, nose takes the specs to market to sell for some cash but is talked into trading the glasses for a mustache by Mr. and Mrs. Ear. Mom and Dad eye are furious and throw the "worthless mustache" out the window, only to discover that the indeed "magic" mustache has grown into a beard which grows up to the sky, where- who lives? -Mr. Mouth, owner of a golden toothbrush, a magic sippy straw, and a magic harmonica (who remains loyal to Master Mouth). Needless to say, the beard is trimmed after every trip but it grows back fuller and longer than ever. At the end, everyone has gathered to form a face, and if you remember your mother's warnings "Don't make faces or yours may stay that way!" which is exactly what happens.
Too silly for all but the five to seven year olds who are already familiar with Jack and the Beanstalk!

[Nielson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a funny book. We just had a book drive at my school and this was one of the books that was brought in. I read it to the sixth graders and afterwards we talked about what they liked and didn't like about it. They all really loved it! It has great illustrations! There are also lots of different examples of plays on words that would probably be left in the dust with younger kids, but the sixth graders were old enough to realize and appreciate them. It was also a play on the Jack and the Beanstalk story using parts of the faces. Cute, clever book!

[April Thompson Freeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute twist on a classic!

[Wendopolis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super funny!