Book Review: It's Not Jack and the Beanstalk

I picked this book up fully expecting it to be in rhyme because if you don’t know, Josh Funk is the King of Rhyme. But it’s not, which was a complete surprise! I loved Jack’s voice in this book, not willing to have someone tell his own story and I perceived him to be much smarter in this version than in the traditional fairy tale where he thought that magic beans would be the best option when selling his cow and when he decided to steal from a giant (again and again).
In this story he doesn’t want to sell his best friend Bessie, the cow, Jack wants the magic beans to grant him a wish – to get his cow back. While Jack makes his way up the beanstalk, he’s invited to Cinderella’s ball and when he reaches the giant he really, really doesn’t want to die. I won’t spoil the story, but the giant is awesome and such a fun character. The illustrators enhance the story with a style that reminds me of television cartoons with bright colors and fun little hidden homages to other fairy tales in the illustrations, this is a story you can’t read just once!

Twitter Booktalk (140 characters or less): Jack’s not happy w the narrator- he doesn’t want to sell his cow for magic beans, climb a beanstalk or get eaten by a giant. What’s he to do?

Title: It’s Not Jack and the Beanstalk
Author: Josh Funk
Illustrator: Edwardian Taylor
Publisher: Two Lions
Publication Date: September 19, 2017
Page Number: 40 pgs.