Author: Retold by Dr. Alvin Granowsky
Illustrator: Linda Graves
Genre: Traditional Literature (Fairy Tales & Fables)
Major Awards: N/A
Age Group: Kindergarten - 2nd
Summary:
Jack and his mother live alone in the country. They are so poor that they live off of a garden and their cow. Suddenly one day, there was nothing in the garden and no milk. His mom told him to go sell their cow to the market so that they could make some money to buy food to eat. Along the way, he met this old man and traded him some beans for the cow. Jack thought it was a great deal, however when he got home his mother was quite disappointed. His mother had threw the beans out the window and the next day, there grew a giant beanstalk next to the window!! Jack was curious to see where the beanstalk led to and decided to climb up. To his surprise, he arrived at a giant's house and a giant woman answered the door. Jack asked for some food because he was hungry and the woman kindly fed him before her giant husband came home. Soon after, Jack had to hide quickly because the giant had came home quite angrily. The giant sat in the kitchen and ate some breakfast while he counted his two sacks of gold. When the giant fell asleep, Jack saw this as an opportunity to take some gold coins for his mother and himself. After he took the coins back down to his mom, they lived a happy life for quite a while until they ran out of coins. Jack would go back up the beanstalk once they needed more money and unknowingly the giant's wife would protect him from getting eaten. When Jack saw the hen lay gold eggs, he waited until the giant was asleep again to steal the hen for his mom and himself, along with a harp. Jack decides to cut the beanstalk as he was scared what the giant would do and he lived a happy life with his mom with all he acquired from the giant's house.
Evaluation & Comments:
I would use this book to teach the lesson of take the opportunities that show up in front of you, listen to your mother when she tells you to do something, and learning who you can or can not trust. There are so many different lessons that can be taught from this book and those are just some of them. I thought this book was really interesting and fun because on the other side, there is another story called "Giants Have Feelings, Too!". I can read both stories and let my students learn about points of view and perspectives. 🙆
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