Jack and the Beanstalk

by Josephine Poole

A retelling of the fairytale "Jack and the Beanstalk" in a way that attempts to lose none of the magic and wonder of the original.

Genres: Fantasy, Picture Books, Fairy Tales

Hardcover

First published March 31, 1997

About the author

Jane Penelope Josephine Helyar known by her nom de plume Josephine Poole is the renowned author of several books for children and young adults. Her first book was published in 1961, and she has also written extensively for television. She lives in Somerset.

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Reviews

[Capn · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It was ANNOYING!"
"Annoying?! What was annoying about it? I thought it was rather good..."
"It was TOOOOO LONGGGGG!!!"

Having been subjected to multiple versions of this story (std. Nursery school curriculum, I guess), I thought it one of the best. The vocabulary is good, the story is pretty solid (Jack's seeking to avenge his father, allegedly murdered by the giant, as related to him by an old crone in the desolate beantop realm). Has the golden egg laying hen, bags of silver and gold coins, and the singing harp who cries out to its master when snatched.

Illustrations not in my favourite style, but very well done.

I will always be partial to Josephine Poole - check out The Visitor (a.k.a. Billy Buck) for a dark middle grade read. Moon Eyes was more recently in print, and is also worth a look. ;)

[Staphany Ramirez · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jack and the Beanstalk written by Paul Hess by this author was different version from the one I read as when I was a child growing up. While I was analyzing the cover it was a boy and a big giant holding the title of the book along with the author's name. Something very interesting about this book is that the book contains a whole lot of pictures. The great thing about these pictures throughout this book is that the almost every picture in the book has a different approach. Some pictures contain borders while others are small. There are even some that fill up the whole entire page. My opinion on this is that the illustrator's approach either the text or images more than others. Which I believe is good for young readers. On the back of this fairytale book it has other future fairytales to read like Goldilocks and the three bears, Little Red Riding Hood, and Rumplestilskin. What I have noticed that almost every fairytale book, in the back of the book it has recommendations of other fairytales to read. I personally enjoyed this book, but i would not read this book as a read aloud to a class.

[Amanda Hlava · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the traditional Jack and the Beanstalk story.