Every child loves fairy tales, and I am no different. I grew up listening to stories of princesses in distress, princes saving the day, fairies causing mischief, elves and their magical powers, and there were always one or two talking animals to liven up the action! There are the classic stories that every girl hears like "Cinderella," "Hansel and Gretel," and "Little Red Riding Hood." But sometimes my mom would get creative and make up her own stories or even combine multiple stories together to make a new and original fairy tale for only my ears! For example, she would pull characters from one story and add them into another, so the Seven Dwarfs from Snow White helped the Three Little Pigs build their homes. In my Storybook, I have created a world where there is only one "Jack,"- as in "Jack and the Beanstalk"- and it is he who lives all of the crazy adventures described in the stories told by Joseph Jacobs.

 

Joseph Jacobs is a well known collector, writer, translator, and re-teller of fairy tales. He takes an older story that he has heard or read in the past, and he re-writes them and re-popularizes them. He is best known and credited for preserving English and Celtic tales for children in the future. Jacobs has two collections of English fairy tales, English Fairy Tales(1890) and More English Fairy Tales (1894). In these collections, he re-tells classics such as "The Three Little Pigs" and "Henny Penny" as well as more unknown stories like "The Laidly Worm of Spinston Heugh" and "Old Mother Wiggle Waggle." He also has a collection titled European Folk and Fairy Tales (1916) that tells the stories about "Beauty and the Beast" and "Snowwhite." All of the folk and fairy tales re-told by Joseph Jacobs are purely for entertainment. There is no obvious or even implied moral to the story, and that is what I like. Jacobs writes stories for children just to have fun and use their imaginations.

 

This Storybook re-tells the story of Jack, the well-known character in so many of the fairy tales from our childhood. Specifically, I wrote about the Jack from the English Fairy Tales re-told by Joseph Jacobs. I used the stories of "Jack and the Beanstalk," "Jack the Giant-Killer" and "The Blind Giant." These are all stories in which a boy named Jack goes about his regular day, and encounters a giant. He always tricks the giant in some way, and either kills him or escapes unharmed.

 

You might assume that all of these stories about Jack are, in fact, about separate characters. They each coincidentally run into giants and have to escape. But what if it was the same Jack who always runs into this adventure? Wouldn't that be crazy!? Just one boy who unfortunately is forced to kill a giant more than once in his life. What luck! I happen to know that this is the case. The "Jack" in all of the stories told by Jacobs is the same boy. A boy who sets out each morning to live a normal life, and comes home with an amazing and unbelievable story to tell... day after day.

In this storybook, Jack is on a trip with a group of men. They each have shared their stories and adventures with each other, and it is now Jack's turn to tell his tale. In The Beginning, Jack tells the story about his adventures climbing the Beanstalk and encountering a giant! Next, in The Middle, Jack escapes from the huge one-eyed giant. Finally, in The End, Jack kills the giant and finds his fortune.







Image Information: English Fairy Tales. Web Source: Books Should Be Free
Image Information: Jack and the Giant. Web Source: Smeagol