Jack and the Beanstalk

by E. Nesbit, Matt Tavares (Illustrator)

"Elegant watercolors echoing the burnished gold tones of the rolling fields show well in storyhours." — School Library Journal

Jack can't seem to do anything useful for his poor mother. He can't even conduct an errand as simple as selling the cow; instead, he trades the beast for a handful of beans. But then, amazingly, those very beans sprout into a towering stalk, elevating Jack to a strange land ruled by a greedy giant. Jack must be clever and brave as he tries to return the giant's stolen treasures to their rightful owner. E. Nesbit's charming, wry retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk was first published in 1908. Preserving the author's unabridged text, this gorgeously designed edition features the dynamic artwork and dramatic perspectives of Matt Tavares, realized in full-color illustrations.

Genres: Fairy Tales, Picture Books, Childrens, Fantasy, Fiction, Classics

48 pages, Hardcover

First published September 12, 2006

About the author

Edith Nesbit (married name Edith Bland; 15 August 1858 – 4 May 1924) was an English author and poet; she published her books for children under the name of E. Nesbit.
She wrote or collaborated on over 60 books of fiction for children, several of which have been adapted for film and television. She was also a political activist and co-founded the Fabian Society, a socialist organisation later connected to the Labour Party.

Edith Nesbit was born in Kennington, Surrey, the daughter of agricultural chemist and schoolmaster John Collis Nesbit. The death of her father when she was four and the continuing ill health of her sister meant that Nesbit had a transitory childhood, her family moving across Europe in search of healthy climates only to return to England for financial reasons. Nesbit therefore spent her childhood attaining an education from whatever sources were available—local grammars, the occasional boarding school but mainly through reading.

At 17 her family finally settled in London and aged 19, Nesbit met Hubert Bland, a political activist and writer. They became lovers and when Nesbit found she was pregnant they became engaged, marrying in April 1880. After this scandalous (for Victorian society) beginning, the marriage would be an unconventional one. Initially, the couple lived separately—Nesbit with her family and Bland with his mother and her live-in companion Maggie Doran.

Initially, Edith Nesbit books were novels meant for adults, including The Prophet's Mantle (1885) and The Marden Mystery (1896) about the early days of the socialist movement. Written under the pen name of her third child 'Fabian Bland', these books were not successful. Nesbit generated an income for the family by lecturing around the country on socialism and through her journalism (she was editor of the Fabian Society's journal, Today).

In 1899 she had published The Adventures of the Treasure Seekers to great acclaim.

Reviews

[Alexis]

This is an ol tale every boy and girl knows. It is about a poor woman and her son. Jack tries to help his mother,but he just messes things up. Jack's mom one day has so little money she finally has to sell their cow. Jackone day bumps into someone who offers him a deal magical beans for a cow. Jack takes the offer and plants the seeds. The next day he climbs the beanstalk and finds a weird land dry and desolate except for one white house...

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are many versions of this beloved fairy tale and many different versions of Jack himself. Is he a useless, lazy boy who hates to work? Is he a moron, too stupid to understand the simplest things and therefore easily gulled by a shyster with his “magic” beans? Is he a sullen lad, grumbling at farm work and all too eager to take advantage of a kindly giantess? Is he nothing more than a wicked thief and murderer, invading an innocent giant’s home, robbing him repeatedly of his treasures and killing the rightful owner when he demands the return of his property?

This story is of a tender-hearted kid, displaying the kind of qualities often associated with a girl rather than a boy (hmmm, that would be an interesting twist). He’s dreamy, gentle, humble, likes pretty things, adores the idea of adventure without actually wanting to go on adventures and is constantly making adorable but impractical things for his mother.

In this version, we have some unusual touches. There’s an actual fairy in it, making this a genuine fairytale, and she weaves a story that seems awfully convenient, about Jack having a father who was a powerful ruler. (We’re meant to take this on faith, although you wonder why Jack’s mother never mentioned this.)

But there are ominous signs all about. The hungry giant’s house is littered with bones, animal and human. He wears a crown on his head that’s much too small for him, indicating that he took it from its true owner. Indeed much of the house he’s in seems unfitted for him, including a low ceiling with holes knocked it, tiny coins, a truly undersized hen, cat and harp.

The illustrations are beautiful soft-edged pictures, in sepia tones for the most part that echo the rustic nature of Jack’s life. They are full sized, mere insets or small renderings that can carry on to the next page, aptly accompanying the story. They are realistic and describe a wealth of detail, so you’ll want to peer through the pages carefully lest you miss something.

This is a special version of this story and one I think would appeal to any child, boy or girl.

[Taylor Richarsdon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title: Jack and the Beanstalk
Author: Edith Nesbit
Plot: This story is told chronologically about a boy, Jack, who trades his family’s cow for a handful of beans that end up growing into a towering beanstalk.
Characters: Jack is a round character, and the rest of the characters are flat.
Main Conflict: The main conflict of this story between Jack and the Giant is character against character conflict.
Main Theme: The main theme of the story is implicit. It is not obvious right away what the moral or lesson of the story is, it takes some reading and gathering of information before you can determine this.
Authors Style: This author uses imagery to paint a picture of the beanstalk and the giants Jack finds at the top.
Point of View: This story is told from a third person point of view.
Design and Layout: I really enjoyed the fun nature of how this book was written. Jack and the Beanstalk is a timeless classic that I remember hearing as a child myself.
Lessons and Standards: One idea for a lesson could be for a kindergarten class while working on comprehension of a text. You could start by reading the book aloud and asking the class to try to remember as many important things that happen as possible. After the story, you could first see if anyone has any questions from the story, and then allow the students to answer certain questions you already have about the story to see what they remember. This could work with standard RL.K.1, with prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text. Another idea could be to read the story aloud, and then ask the class to write a paragraph to summarize and retell the story. This could work with standard RL.1.2, retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.
Overall Assessment: Overall, I thought this book was great for kids of all ages. Because the story is so timeless, it is a classic that we can always enjoy, young or old.

[Jennifer Hart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awards Received: None

Appropriate grade level(s): Kindergarten to Fourth Grade

Summary: Jack and the Beanstalk is a story about a boy named Jack who is a dreamer and he lives with his mother. Jack sells his cow for magic beans and those beans sprout a giant beanstalk. Jack climbs the beanstalk and meets a fairy as well as a giant. Jack learns valuable lessons from the beanstalk and realizes who he is as a person.

My review: Jack and the Beanstalk is a great book because it shows students that even if you aren’t perfect, you can still accomplish great things.

1-2 Possible in-class uses: Jack and the Beanstalk is a wonderful book to have in a classroom library because a lot of books don’t have single parent households and a lot of students have divorced parents. I also think that after reading this book, a class can start to learn about plants and grow their own beanstalk.

[Meredith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I generally love (and actively seek out) unabridged versions of tales...but this story really needs to be abridged. The original text is oddly-worded, the fact that Jack's father used to be king of the giant's land never really plays into the story, and the fairy seems like a random addition as well. All of the components that are typically removed from other versions of the story just seemed to detract from this version. I do, however, LOVE the illustrations. They were the only reason I made it to the end of the book!

[Dhanya Jothimani · Rating 4 out of 5]

First came across the story in Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes – so, wanted to read this. Beautiful illustrations – seems like there is a twist with Fairy and Jack’s father was well off and ruled the land.

[Mitchell Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

What an interesting retelling of this story... I'm confused as to why the author made the changes to the story that they did. But the illustrations were absolutely stunning and really any rendition of this story is going to be good just based on the source-material alone. BUT THE ILLUSTRATIONS OH MY GOD SO GOOD SO LUSH SO BEAUTIFUL

[Shannon Leal · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Stars
Genre: Traditional Literature
A unique feature about this book is the illustrations. The illustrations in this book are amazing and they really bring the book to life.

1-3
Date Completed: Nov 1

[Nina]

This book was very interesting and kept me hooked. Jack the son can never seem to do anything right for his mother. He tries to sell his cow for money but got magic beans instead. His journey through out the book was to get the treasure back to where its supposed to be.

[Children's Literature Centre at FSU · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story about a young boy Jack whose great efforts get turned around the day he sold his cow for some magic beans. The magic beans grow a stalk that take him on a adventurous journey that readers will love. This is a classic story that any imagination will appreciate.

[Karim Elmenshawy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fee-fi-fo-fum,
I smell the blood of an Englishman,
Be he alive, or be he dead
I'll grind his bones to make my bread.

[Red · Rating 3 out of 5]

Defining tale

[Kaylynn Johnsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poor Jack, no matter what he does it goes wrong. But, there is a fairy who has been leading him all along. Follow him up the beanstalk and watch him try to get back the life stolen from his family.

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the best version I have read of this old story. The scenes are fabulously illustrated in subdued colours and realistic characters. The story is told in wonderful exciting detail.

[Sadie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations. This version is longer than most. It includes the fairy, and the twist that Jack's father once ruled the land in the clouds. We missed the giant saying "Fe Fi Fo Fum"

[Mickey Bits · Rating 4 out of 5]

My children and I both like reading the various iterations of the Jack and the Magic Beans. No FEE-FI-FO-FUM in this version but an entertaining giant nonetheless. And great art by Matt Tavares.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nesbit's telling introduces a Fisher King-like element that I don't remember from other versions.

[Chelsea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun retelling beautiful illustrations

[Jonathan Kemmerer-Scovner · Rating 5 out of 5]

2006 is when this beautiful edition illustrated by Matt Tavares came out, but the story itself is the unabridged text from 1908, published originally in The Old Nursery Stories. At nearly 50 pages, this is the most complete telling I've ever seen of this classic folktale. Nesbit begins with the character's full background:

"He was always trying to make things that seemed like the things in books - rafts of sledges, or wooden spear-heads to play at savages with, or paper crowns with which to play at kings. He never did any work; and this was very hard on his mother, who took in washing, and had great trouble to make both ends meet."

Jack is a dreamer, content to lay about in the summer fields and stare at the clouds. He is well-meaning, but always makes a blunder of himself. The debacle with selling the family cow is just one in a series of misadventures. One question which I've always wondered is, does the butcher in his wagon know the magical properties of the beans with which he uses to bargain for the ill-fated bovine? In every version I've seen, the butcher seems to be clearly playing Jack for the fool. Yet somehow, magically, after having been tossed from the window by his enraged mother... It's as though Jack himself produces the magic effect the beans have. As though they really were worthless, until Jack infused them with his own simple, child-like faith...

Tavares does a tremendous job making the beanstalk make spacial sense. In just a couple of illustrations, we see Jack's look of absolute delight as he climbs the stalk. He is clearly several miles off the ground, the surrounding countryside spread out around him, but his eyes eagerly yearning only upwards. However, when he reaches the top of the beanstalk, he finds "the trees were withered, the fields were bare, and every stream had run dry." Not only that, but there are skulls and bones dotting the barren earth.

This was the land which once belonged to Jack's father, who had been king - a fact that not all versions make clear. His father was killed by the vicious giant, who took over the kingdom, turned his subjects into trees, and horded all of the gold for himself. All this is explained to Jack by a tiny fairy. Exposition dispensed with, fairy fluttering off, Jack is now free to do that for which he is destined.

"Now the time has come for you to set things straight. And this is really what you've been trying to dream about all your life. You must find the giant and get back your father's land for your mother. She has worked for you all your life. Now you will work for her; but you have the best of it, because her work was mending and washing and cooking and scrubbing, and your work is - adventures. Go straight on and do the things that first come into your head. This is good advice in ordinary life, and it works well in this land too. Goodbye."

Interestingly, the giant's wife is not a giant at all, but a little old woman who takes pity on poor Jack, and allows him to hide away when her giant husband comes home. Each time, Jack steals one of the amulets of the Giant's power - the goose who lays the golden eggs, the sacks of gold, and the golden harp - and each time the giant's wife allows him to enter, reluctantly. She never seems to realize that Jack is the same child as before.

Also, very interestingly, and a fact I only noticed the second-time through, the giant never utters the words for which he is famous: "Fee fi fo fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread." Instead he growls simply, "Fresh meat today, my dear. I can smell it."

Finally, harp in hand, Jack races down the beanstalk. This third time, the giant finally realizes what's going on and gives chase. "Jack screamed to his mother for a chopper, and, like the good woman she was, she brought it without asking what it was for."

Once the giant is dead, we see Jack's mother sweeping the front walkway of their tiny cottage, and Jack feeding the chickens while cows graze in the background. The pastoral pleasantness is unchanged. There is a moral here about leading the simple life.

As for the enchanted land up above - well, the fairy told Jack that after the death of the giant the people came out of the trees, and the land flourished under the rule of the giant's wife, a most worthy woman, whose only fault was that she was too ready to trust boys.

http://www.picturebooksreview.com/201...

https://www.facebook.com/picturebooks...

[Drew Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack is an imaginative and mischievous boy looking high and low for adventures. When his mother, in dire straits, sends him to sell the family cow and he returns with what he calls magic beans, she throws them out in exasperation. It isn't long before Jack's high and low adventure truly starts.

When my Disney watch-through/source material read-through made it to Fun and Fancy Free, the closest thing I could think of was finding the original story used as inspiration for Mickey and the Beanstalk, so I found a version of Jack that I liked (I chose as old a text as I could, and written by notable and reputable children's author E. Nesbit, and that it had nice illustrations helped). It was a quick, fun read, and although everyone's familiar with the story, there were a few points of plot that took me by surprise. I'm not sure if they were part of the original version, but they fit well and added a little more dimensionality to the backstory and characters. Jack is spunky and clever, if a little naughty, and although the characters around him are a little less developed, he carries the story pretty well on his own. What can I say? It was a more than perfectly serviceable retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk.

There was no "Fee-fi-fo-fum" to be found here, but the familiar story is helped in this edition with nice writing, fun illustrations and a few surprising story elements here and there. It's Jack as you know it, but it also features a few little twists (that may or may not be part of the original original story) that keep it interesting.

[Angela Galvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack and the Beanstalk tells of a boy named Jack who was a dreamer. Jack never liked work but would always prefer dreaming up adventures. One day Jack's mother told him to take the cow to the market to sell. Jack ran into a butcher on the way and traded the cow for colorful shiny beans. When Jack came home, his mother was cross and tossed the beans out the window. The next morning, Jack awoke to a large stalk that took over his yard. Jack slipped out the window and climbed the stalk. Jack met a fairy, who told Jack that the land belonged to Jack's father. The giant who was quite large, killed Jack's father and took over the land. Jack's curiosity led him to the Giant's house. Jack encounters sees the Giant 3 times. Every time, Jack took a possession from the Giant. Each time, Jack came back and convinced the Giant's wife to let him in the house. The last time, the Giant awoke and chased Jack down the stalk. When Jack gets to the bottom, he chops the stalk down and the Giant plummets to his death. Jack and his mother were quite wealthy from the treasure that Jack took. The pages are illustrated in watercolor with deep richy tones.

[Shanna Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edith Nesbit's classic dry wit shines through in her brilliant delivery of this traditional fairy tale (originally published in 1908), which is enjoyable on both a child's level and an adult's. Tavares' excellent paintings show the giant's evil partly through his personal demeanor -- his home is squalid, and the stains on his shirt almost smell of body odor. Nesbit keeps to the traditional story sequence, and Jack is transformed from a foolish ne'er-do-well into a hero, and through courage and intelligence recovers what rightfully belongs to his family.

The parental figures in this story are positive: Jack's deceased father was a good ruler, and his mother loves honest work and home, choosing to stay in her cottage even when their newfound wealth would have allowed her to leave. Nesbit's moralizing about Jack's laziness is a bit heavy-handed, but even this is tongue-in-cheek. This is the best Jack and the Beanstalk story I have ever read.

[Meltha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good, strong version of Jack, who is a dreamer here, with the original negative connotation followed up by a much more positive spin on the idea. The giant has once again killed his father and stolen his home and treasures, so he does have a motivation other than simple greed. The giant's wife is outright human, and things do turn out well for her in the end. I wasn't entirely crazy about the mother's characterization, but it didn't bother me too much. The illustrations are quite interesting since it looks a heck of a lot more like Ireland than England to me, and the giant doesn't get his usual saying here, so it really could technically be elsewhere. On the whole, it's a good book.

[Corina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very wordy for no particular reason; weird sentence structures in a few places. Addition of a fairy who tells Jack that his father used to own the land and the giant killed his father(?). The giant's wife plays a more active role in the story than in the traditional. The giant here is really just nasty and grotesque - stained shirt, bloodshot eyes, wet armpits, scraggly hair, missing teeth, crusty feet, drool... At dinner time he tore an entire hog (full-bodied) into pieces with hands and just ate it. Okayyyy...? It's a little bit "extra." Anyway, I was ready to get it over with.

[Michael Earp · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Matt Tavares' illustrations, but I struggle to get on board with the likes of: "Jack screamed to his mother for a chopper, and, like the good woman she was, she brought it out without asking what it was for."

This is after Jack robs an unsuspecting giant blind three times over (surely the hen laying golden eggs would have been sufficient to raise them from their poverty) and right before he kills the giant. But I guess that pattern is there in the traditional story... sigh.

[Claire Longfellow · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used to read this book all the time as a child; it was one of my favorites. However, reading it now, I think a little different. It is a great book to get kids imaginations going. Like the huge beanstalk or the giant; they are very unrealistic but fun and over the top. I think that and the illustrations make this book. But, something that I realize reading it now, is that there is no moral or lesson. I think it is a fun book, but not necessarily one that teaches kids anything valuable.

[Michelle Henry]

This traditional classic is wonderfully told and illustrated in this children's work. A story of a boy Jack who sells his cow for a bag of magical seeds, is depicted in captivating artwork. Jack's magical seeds grow a beanstalk that carries him to a world in the clouds housing a mean and nasty giant. Jack's encounter with the giant and the beanstalk exemplify a tale that many children will enjoy.

[Ramarie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Snow White, Blood Red had a very different version of Jack and the Beanstalk and I wanted to re-familiarize myself with the original. I also picked it up because of E. Nesbit being the teller. The illustrations are vivid, by Matt Tavares. I enjoyed this story as a child; I was a little disappointed that in this version, the giant doesn't say "fee fie fo fum."

[Natalie Harvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely! The language is lyrical even though outdated, and the pencil and watercolor illustrations are so rich and detailed. I love how substantial this version is - with a fairy-told back story of Jack's father having been killed by the giant - and the sense of justice that occurs when Jack kills the giant at the end of the story. Thank goodness, the giant dies in this one!

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love E. Nesbit's stuff, but this version of Jack and the Beanstalk gets a little wordy. Plus, Jack's character seems a little shady at times--he lies to the giant's wife (who was kind enough to save his hide), is lazy and doesn't help his mother do the chores, etc.) The illustrations by Matt Tavares though, are beautiful.