Mighty Jack
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
From New York Times–bestselling author and illustrator Ben Hatke comes Mighty Jack, a magical, action-packed graphic novel adventure for middle-grade readers.
Jack dreads summer. His single mom takes a second job, leaving him stuck at home to watch his autistic sister, Maddy—a lot of responsibility, and even more boredom, since Maddy never talks. That is, until one day at the flea market, she breaks her silence with a bold instruction: trade their mom’s car for a box of mysterious seeds.
What starts as a simple garden soon transforms into a wild, magical jungle—filled with tiny onion babies running amok, enormous pink pumpkins with a taste for mischief, and, on one unforgettable moonlit night…a dragon.
Filled with lush illustrations, imaginative magic, and thrilling adventure, Mighty Jack is perfect for fans of fantasy, graphic novels, and stories about courage, family, and unexpected heroism.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Hatke's reworking of "Jack and the Beanstalk," Jack must care for his younger sister, Maddy, while his single mother holds down two jobs over the summer. Maddy doesn't speak, but she's entranced by the magic seeds she and Jack pick up from a shady dealer at a flea market, in exchange for their mother's car keys. Once they plant them, their home-schooled, sword-wielding neighbor Lilly is curious about their new garden, too a little too curious. Hatke (Little Robot) revels in drawing the fantasy plants: green hands that reach out and grab, tiny onion-headed creatures, melons with teeth. Jack and Lilly argue about how to handle them: "These plants are dangerous!" he protests. "Open your eyes, Jack," Lilly retorts. "Just because something's dangerous doesn't make it evil." There's action and menace aplenty, including a dragon whose ferocity only Maddy can quell, and flashes of intimacy, too, as when Jack's mother's anger melts into compassion as she sees her son in tears, or when Maddy suddenly speaks. Jack's desperate efforts to juggle the needs of three complex female characters drive this sensitive retelling. The cliffhanger ending promises a sequel. Ages 10 14.
