Mighty Jack

by

Published Sept. 25, 2016 by First Second, an imprint of Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck.

ISBN:
978-1-62672-264-4
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4 stars (1 review)

Jack might be the only kid in the world who's dreading summer. But he's got a good reason: summer is when his single mom takes a second job and leaves him at home to watch his autistic kid sister, Maddy. It's a lot of responsibility, and it's boring, too, because Maddy doesn't talk. Ever. But then, one day at the flea market, Maddy does talk—to tell Jack to trade their mom's car for a box of mysterious seeds. It's the best mistake Jack has ever made. In Mighty Jack, what starts as a normal little garden out back behind the house quickly grows up into a wild, magical jungle with tiny onion babies running amok, huge, pink pumpkins that bite, and, on one moonlit night that changes everything...a dragon.

2 editions

reviewed Mighty Jack by Ben Hatke

Ben Hatke's retelling of a fairy tale

4 stars

An interesting start to a new series by Ben Hatke which is a re-telling of the Jack and the Beanstalk story. But here, Jack has a sister who doesn't talk, whom he has to take care of for the summer while their mother is off working at two jobs. One day, at a fair, they encounter a strangely familiar character who offers them seeds. Anybody would turn down the offer; but not Jack because his sister convinces him to take the seeds.

Thus begins their planting adventures as the seeds give birth to strange creatures and magical powers ... and draws a dragon into their world. But the dragon warns them that danger lurks in the garden. And danger does appear in the form of a particular packet of seeds that, when planted, kidnaps Jack's sister. And thus begins his adventures to rescue her.