Fearsome Giant, Fearless Child
A Worldwide Jack and the Beanstalk Story
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Drawing from African, Asian and European folklore Fearsome Giant, Fearless Child: A Worldwide Jack and the Beanstalk Story retells the classic fairy tale in a single narrative through multiple world cultures.
The story of a child confronting a man-eating giant or witch is told the world over. These heroes go by many names and might be normal in size or no bigger than a thumb. Though they're often scorned for being the youngest and smallest, they're well-armed with cleverness and courage.
In this companion to Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal, Newbery Medal winner Paul Fleischman and illustrator Julie Paschkis combine elements of this story from different traditions—Jack and the Beanstalk, Tom Thumb, Kihuo, Vasilisa—to create one narrative, one complete picture of a small boy's triumph.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This collaboration offers a kaleidoscopic presentation of the traditional boy and giant story by collaging text fragments from different cultures' tellings. Each story fragment is boxed and framed by color-saturated illustrated backgrounds evoking the text's origin country, which is also spelled out in a subtly incorporated title card. The format evokes the sense of an eager chorus, with voices from Ethiopia, Gambia, Greece, Japan, the Philippines, and elsewhere jostles in a folkloric cacophony that offers conflicting details. A boy who is "the youngest of twelve. The youngest of thirteen" must steal or find something: a golden harp, a prize bull, a wish-granting jewel, a thousand pearls. These shifting elements alchemically coalesce into a sturdy plot in which the littlest and least-regarded triumphs. Ages 4 8.
