This is a spin-off of the fairy tale Jack and the Beanstalk. The main character in the book is Jim, when he wakes up in the morning he sees a beanstalk out his window. He climbs it and finds a giant. We all know what happens from there, but in this re-tell, Jim helps the giant. He does many things to help the giant, by giving him a wig and false teeth. After Jim helps the giant he is rewarded with a gold coin. Throughout the story it has math concepts of measurement in which a math teacher may use for the classroom. Also we can use across content areas such as ELAR to compare and contrast folktales. I wouldn't read this as a read-aloud for the fact it has some topics that are not suitable for younger audience. Such as the giant sharing a beer with Jim. I would take parts of what I want to teach and read it to the class and go from there. ( )

This fairy tale is a sequel to the classic Jack and the Beanstalk. It would be great to use during a fairy tale unit, to compare and contrast with the traditional story and to use with measurement units in math. It would also be a good book to use when discussing character traits and elements of a story. ( )

This is a fairy tale that feeds off the traditional, "Jack and the Giant Beanstalk" fairytale. In this one the giant is old, and the little boy Jim helps him acquire glasses, false teeth, and a wig. The story is told in paragraph form. The author uses repetition through out, so the reader begins to get a feel for what's coming about half way through the book. The illustrations are color every other page, although I am not sure the reasoning for this, I noticed it right away. The illustrations with color remind me of watercolor paintings; they are not bright and bold, but they are detailed. ( )

I liked this book for many different reasons. I liked the plot of this story because the author created a pattern that readers can pick up while reading. For example, the author used the giant as a person who needs many things in his life. Some of these items included glasses and teeth. The boy was introduced and must figure out how to make and get the objects to the giant. The giant then paid Jim in gold coins for helping him. I also liked the illustrations of this book. The author used cartoon like characters. I liked this because it made the characters seem fake however, they are real in this story. The illustrator also used the pictures to show the objects Jim made for the giant. For example, the giant glasses and teeth are entertaining for readers because these objects do not exist in real life. This Modern Fantasy Book had an imaginative setting of the boy climbing up a beanstalk to visit a giant. However, the author made the setting seem real because the giant had many difficulties a real person would have.

I had mixed feelings about this book after reading it. I liked this book because it was a spin-off of the classic fairytale "Jack and the Beanstalk", however I thought that the plot was very repetitive and honestly, kind of boring. There was nothing that made the reader form a connection to the characters, which is something I like to do when I read books. The illustrations helped the reader form visuals of the plot, however some pages were in color and some were in black and white. While I tried to figure out the reasoning behind this, I could not figure out why the illustrator chose to do that. The book lost my attention halfway through because there was no emotional aspect to the story. I think that the big message that the author was trying to portray was that curiosity can lead to the discovery of new things. Since Jim was so curious about the beanstalk outside of his window, it led him to the giant's house where he encountered a few obstacles, and eventually made a new friend. ( )