Kate and the Beanstalk

The book's attractive over-sized design includes many double-page spreads, clever integration of text within lots of illustrations, and a delightful title page with the information incorporated into leaves sprouting off the beanstalk. Magical.

In this version of "Jack and the Beanstalk," Kate is a spunky and clever heroine who takes giant-killing in stride, avenging her father's death and winning back her mother's estate. The illustrations' tilty perspectives and large flat figures are a good match for this humorous revision of the traditional English tale.

Osborne tweaks tradition with this feminist rendition of a classic fairy tale. Here it's Kate instead of Jack who trades her family's cow for magic beans, and later climbs the beanstalk to find a kingdom in the clouds. Like Ann Beneduce's recent Jack and the Beanstalk, Osborne draws from a late-19th-century source for her retelling that incorporates a disguised fairy queen and a motivation for repeated visits to the giant—avenging Kate's father's death. Osborne's witty and spry reworking (she changes the giant's famous refrain to accommodate Kate's gender, "Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum'un,/ I smell the blood of an Englishwoman") shows Kate in a confident light ("I fear nothing when I'm doing right," the heroine tells the fairy queen). Through her cleverness and resourcefulness (and the unwitting help of the giant's wife), the heroine earns back all that the giant usurped from her family. Potter's (Gabriella's Song) airy gouache and watercolor illustrations sparkle with humor and exploit the perspectives offered by the towering beanstalk. With her Princess Leia-style hairdo, a few disguises and a can-do attitude, Kate comes across as a real action heroine, whether setting off determinedly with the family cow, nipping up the beanstalk or pedaling an eggbeater to assist the giantess in preparing breakfast. There's much to enjoy in this spunky picture book, which puts a fresh face on an old favorite. All ages.

Copyright 2000 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

This version, far more interesting than the more common one found on library shelves, owes much to Andrew Lang's The Red Fairy Book (1890), which is cited. An old woman meets Kate at the top of the beanstalk and discloses the "back story." The giant killed a knight and stole his castle while his wife and baby were away. "Perhaps you are the one to right the terrible wrongs," says the old woman, going on to inform Kate that she must return three treasures to the knight's widow. Following the familiar pattern, Kate pays three visits to the giant's castle. After she has succeeded in her quest, the Queen of the Fairies reveals that Kate is the knight's daughter and was being tested for her worthiness. While purists may regret the altered rhyme, "Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum'un, I smell the blood of an Englishwoman-" the moral anchor in this version works nicely with the switch in the main character's gender. Careful book design is evident in this appropriately oversized volume. The dizzying perspectives seen from the beanstalk are exaggerated by text that becomes bigger and bolder with Kate's ascent and descent. The language, while accessible, has a fairy-tale formality, but there is lots of ironic humor in Potter's flat, na f drawings. The avaricious giant is uniquely tidy with slicked-down hair and a carefully waxed mustache, and Kate rides the eggbeater like a bicycle as she helps the giantess make breakfast. One of the most lasting and popular of all fairytales, this retelling will make a popular addition to all collections.-Kate McClelland, Perrot Memorial Library, Old Greenwich, CT

Copyright 2000 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.