A fun retelling of one of the Appalachian Jack tales, and the author's note explaining how these folk tales traveled from Europe to the early United States will help deepen kids' understanding of the universality of a lot of our traditional literature. ( )

This story is about a boy named Jack who is out looking for a job to provide money for his ma and him. He comes upon a town and the sheriff comes outside and asks Jack who he is. Then tells him all the animals that have been disrupting the town. THe sheriff tells Jack there is a reward for each one. At the end Jack gets all his money but gets scared when the sheriff mentions GIANTS! ( )

Jack is looking to help his mother and seek his fortune. He takes on the job of capturing critters and does so with ease, in larger than life fashion. The characters speak with an Appalachian dialect. ( )

One of the many adventures of Jack as he helps the town sherif take care of some wild varmints. The sherif thinks Jack is a mighty fearless boy but doesn't realize that is chased by all the animals who luckily get caught somehow. It concludes with Jack being asked to help save the giants but readers are unaware of whether he accomplishes this challenge.