Jack and the Beanstalk is a story with a long history. This version, retold by Ann Keay Beneduce, illustrated by Gennady Spirin, seeks the best of the Jack tradition.
The Story
Jack and the Beanstalk is a legend with a very long history. Historian Geoffrey Monmouth recorded stories of a King Corineus who was the ruler of Cornwall. Legend states that Corineus was clever and brave and freed the country from nasty giants. The stories surrounding his activities evolved into a series of legends known as Jack tales, of which, Jack and the Beanstalk or Jack and the Giant-Killer is the most well known.
Author Ann Keay Beneduce chose Tudor England as the location for her version of Jack and the Beanstalk since the most well known versions of the story date from that period.
One problem many have had with Jack over the years is his apparently random violence and theft. However, the tale has been moralized in the centuries since its first telling. Among the moralized versions appeared the addition of a fairy who tells Jack that he must go on this adventure in order to recover the treasures stolen from his family by a giant and to avenge his father’s death at the hands of the same giant.
Beneduce’s rendition of Jack follows most closely the version published in The Children’s Book by Horace Scudder which was published in 1881. Scudder’s version incorporates the moralizing figure of the fairy while not neglecting the delicious scariness of the giant and his popular refrain “Fee, fi, fo, fum.”
The Illustrations
Jack is often portrayed as an idiot or half-witted and it would seem that Gennady Spirin takes that into account when he illustrates Jack. Jack is slightly pudgy, like a boy who hasn’t quite outgrown his baby fat and always looks a bit comical thanks to the over-sized hats that he wears which always seems to be slipping down over his eyes or ears.
Spirin's illustrations are rich without being overly vibrant. He also employs the technique of framing the text page with a border that ties in to either the story or to the illustration on the adjacent page. His illustrations of beans are particularly captivating. The magic beans are colorful and are shown in a range of jellybean colors. The beanstalk is spectacular – huge and gnarly with bean pods that are as long as Jack is tall and capture the feel of runner beans from the garden.
In Conclusion
Beneduce and Spirin work together to create a pleasing and straightforward interpretation of Jack and the Beanstalk that makes a nice introduction to the fairy tale for children.
To learn more about the fairy tale, read Jack and the Beanstalk: Ladder to Heaven.
To find another picture book illustrated by Spirin, read The Night Before Christmas.
Jack and the Bean Stalk, Retold by Ann Keay Beneduce and Illustrated by Gennady Spirin (Philomel Books, 1999, ISBN 0-399-23118-8).
