Jack and the Beanstalk

The plot of Jack and the Beanstalk by Steve Kellogg follows the story of a young boy who climbs up a magical bean sprout, only to find a giant's castle in the clouds. He sneakily steals a hen that lays golden eggs as a way to provide for his poor mother and himself, but when he realizes that he misses the adventure, he returns to attempt to steal a magic harp. However, the giant catches on, and chases Jack down. Jack runs to the beanstalk and cuts it with an axe, causing the giant to fall. With that, he and his mother live happily ever after. I wanted to review this particular book because, quite frankly, it has always irked me even as a young reader. It feels that the narrator is trying to paint Jack, a boy who breaks into a stranger's show more home and steals his belongings, as a hero. While it is to provide for his family, it has always rubbed off on me the wrong way, and gives me the impression that "stealing from mean people is good". Perhaps I have yet to read another perspective on this, but this story has been a source of frustration whenever I read it.

That being said, the fairy tale itself is quite enjoyable if you can look past the strange overall message (Which, I have gathered is 'take advantage of what life presents you', even if it is robbing other people ???). Young readers will enjoy the tension that the author builds while Jack hides from the giant or tries to escape from him, and may even relate to wanting to help provide for your own family. Overall, I believe the tale to be properly entertaining. show less

Young Jack takes his family's cow into and trades it for magic beans. His mother, angry, throws the beans out and sends Jack to bed. The next morning, there is a magic beanstalk outside of his house, climbing high to the sky. He scales the bean stalk three different and returns with different treasures every time. The third time though, the giant ogre, who Jack has been stealing treasures from, pursues Jack down the beanstalk. Him and his mother cut down the beanstalk, causing the ogre to perish and Jack and his mother live happily ever after.
I really enjoy this story even though I have heard different versions of it many times over. Even though it has been told countless times, it is a good story and enjoyable to many people. That is show more why it is a classic story. I believe the theme of this story is greed. Jack continues to steal from the giant ogre time after time and it almost leads to his own demise. The tone is serious and the story has a ethical moral to it. This could be used to teach students the dangers of being greedy or envious of the belongings of others. It could also be used to practice reading, as the text is advanced for young readers. I like this story, as it provides an interesting spin on a age-old classic story. show less

I really enjoyed Stephen Kellogg’s edition of the classic fable, “Jack and the Beanstalk”. The main aspect of the book that I enjoyed was the artwork. The book starts off with very bright colors such as yellow and green as Jack is milking the cow and receiving the magic beans. As the book goes on, the color scheme gets darker, using more dark green, blue, and brown. The color scheme adds to the mood of the story as it goes along and fits well with the progression of events in the plot. The illustrations are extremely detailed, colorful, and fill up the whole page, which immediately grabs the reader’s attention. In addition, the plot line is very exciting and fast paced. Students would be fascinated with the impossible events show more such as magic beans, a castle in the clouds, a hen that lays golden eggs, and a harp that plays by itself. There is never a dull moment in this story, and I think it is an overall great book. The main idea of the story is if you are courageous and persistent, you will succeed. show less

I enjoyed this book for a few reason but none of those reasons was the moral of the story. There didn't seem to be a lesson of any kind at the end of the story.Most fairy tales and folk stories have a good lesson to teach children at the end of a story, but in this one there was none. Jack follows none of life's laws moral or otherwise and ends up rich. He sells the cow for magic beans from a mysterious wizard, which was not the best idea for him to have done. the rest of the story Jack goes to the land of the giants and steals from the multiple times and that teaches students that it is okay to steal if you are able to get away with it. One of the main things that I enjoyed about this book was the illustrations, they were unique and show more the colors reflected the mood of each page. show less

“Jack and the Beanstalk,” by Steven Kellogg is a folk tale. The story starts out when a boy, Jack, trades his mother’s cow for five magic beans. The beans end up growing a bean stock, which Jack climbs only to find an ogre. Jack hides from the ogre but continually steals his gold. Finally, the ogre finds Jack and chases him down the bean stock, but Jack manages to cut down the bean stock, defeat the ogre, and become rich with all of the gold that he has stolen.

Although I enjoyed this story, I didn’t really enjoy the ending. Jack didn’t deserve to get rich with the gold that he had stolen, but this is something that could be discussed in the classroom.

This book would be good to teach kids how plants grow. After reading the show more story the class could plant their own “magical” bean stocks and watch them grow over the weeks to come. It would also be interesting to let the kids journal over whether or not they think Jack was right or wrong in stealing from the children eating ogre. show less

I enjoyed this book, I feel as if everyone has read or heard this story growing up. I liked the metaphors presented in this story; for example, the cow is named “Milky-white” but provides no milk. I also like the repetition in the book, it kept me interested and engaged “and he climbed, and he climbed, and he climbed.” I also enjoyed the illustrations, there was very little white space and the pictures were very detailed, colorful, and reflected the mood of Jack on each page. The overall message of this story is taking risks; sometimes even the scariest ones bring a nice reward. This book is also a great fable that is great bedtime story.

I really enjoyed this book for many different reasons. However, there doesn’t seem to be a lesson at the end of this story. Most folk tales are used to teach children a life lesson along with a fun story. This story however, is not like that. In the story Jack doesn’t follow any of life’s moral laws and he ends up rich anyway. For example, Jack sells his cow to a strange wizard for beans. Clearly, this was not the smartest thing to teach children. Throughout the rest of the story, Jack goes to the land of the giants and steels form them three times! This would be teaching children that it is ok to steal if you are sneaky enough to get away with it. However, the illustrations in this book are very unique with thoughtful colors that show more change the mood of each page. show less