Sam Swope

Nice enough story with some funny bits about a boy who is considered bad by adults, but leaves the village where he has been abandoned as a baby because he thinks his presence puts them in danger of giants. The moral I suppose is that boys who misbehave in the eyes of authority figures aren't really bad and may be better than the "good" people around him. The main authority figure in this case is the community's preacher and he is overly strict, intolerant, stupid, and, well, mean: he blames show more Jack for the giants because he has no answer to the problem. When Jack is left on someone's doorstep in the village, he is passed around from house to house because no one wants him. In spite of this, he is concerned about the welfare of the everyone else.

The giants are supposed to represent the seven deadly sins; sloth, avarice, gluttony, anger are obvious, but I don't know what the others are offhand and the story doesn't give me enough clues to figure them out. There is the required-in-fairy-tales old man with whom Jack shares his meager supply of food and gets a magic bean in return. SPOILER: Jack lives happily ever after, as required in fairy tales, with a beautiful woman, but it's his mother, who tucks him in bed every night after a wonderful day of adventures. Finally, someone loves him and does so unconditionally. One of the giants eats himself; like the mythological Ouroboros, Igli in Heinlein's Glory Road, and Linus Pauling's benzene-dream snake. show less

All the villagers said that Jack was a bad boy, so when rumors spread of giants living in the land, they blamed Jack. Jack leaves town with a cow as his transport. Along his travels he encounters and tricks seven giants until by tricking the Green Queen, her spells die with her and the cow returns to her original form: as Jack's long-lost mother and former princess, now the Queen. The giants represent the seven deadly sins: sloth, gluttony, anger, lust, greed, pride and envy (with lust show more depicted as a tickle-loving giant). show less

You know, I love this book. The pictures are beautiful, the text is well-written and funny, the story is good... there is just one part that sort of sticks in my craw... at the end when the author makes the comment about armies not being able to think. It just didn't seem to fit - it seemed more like a gripe or a jab from the author. We all understood what was happening and why the army would go to General Pinch's house, we just didn't need that extra commentary, I thought it sort of show more distracted from the story. It pulled me out of the story for a moment to look at the author and his views instead of what was happening. Still, a good book overall. show less

Gotta Go! Gotta Go! is a charming children's book following a little caterpillar who doesn't know much, just that she has to go, and she has to go to Mexico! Through the book the caterpillar encounters many animals who do not believe she can do it, but she does not give up. Eventually turning into a Monarch butterfly she reaches Mexico, where she meets other Monarch butterflies. This book is a great story to explain the concept of metamorphosis as well as migration.

Teaching Ideas: show more metamorphosis, and migration, as well as never giving up show less