Jack and the Baked Beanstalk

Product Information

Jack and the Baked Beanstalk by Colin Stimpson is a great twist of the famous traditional tale for KS1 and KS2 children.

The giant wakes when Jack is leaving the castle the third time, and chases Jack back down the beanstalk. This modern retelling of the old fable of an impoverished mother and son, who exchanges his last pennies for some "magic" beans.Stimpson adds in comical connections to the original tale, for example, forgetting the giant part of the tale, which adds to the story and the digitally-rendered illustrations are really stunning, bringing the tale to life. I felt the luxurious style of illustration and multi-layered story gave this book a cinematic quality. I wish we would would get to witness some final apologizing words from Jack's mum, though, for she aggressively threw Jack's precious, magic baked beans can out of the window in her rage, but profits in the end, because of her son's new friends' talents (.

This addition makes the tale more palatable to younger readers whose parents want to use the fairy tale for moral instruction as well as entertainment, and, after all, Jack is still far from perfect. I used this book while I was on serial days as the class was learning about the Jack and the Beanstalk and plant life-cycles. This ‘flyover’ symbolises the way in which the super wealthy build their empires without a second thought to the little people, passing them over, so to speak.This take on the well-known fairy-tale is set in the 1950s with Jack and his mother running an American diner underneath a flyover. This updated planning for 2020 is based on the alternative version of Jack and the Beanstalk, the amazing picture book ‘Jack and the Baked Beanstalk.