Jack and the Baked Beanstalk
Colin Stimpson
Templar Publishing pbk
This is a reworking of the traditional tale given a depression-era setting and some amusing twists. There’s a back-story too, telling how Jack and his mother have become down on their luck due to the building of a new flyover that results in people by-passing their burger van. So, to encourage more custom, Jack’s mother sends him with their last pennies to buy milk and coffee beans. En route for the shop Jack encounters a man who offers him magic baked beans and knowing plenty about fairy tales as well as having a penchant for such beans, Jack
finds this offer irresistible. Decidedly unimpressed, Jack’s mum tosses the can of beans through the window and next morning Jack discovers, as one would expect, a magic baked beanstalk has grown.

Then begins a life-changing adventure for Jack, for the lonely, money-obsessed giant he finds at the top, his chicken companion and ultimately, for Jack’s mum and the business that eventually becomes the thriving `Baked Beanstalk Café’ thanks, in no small way, to the new resident cook and the unfailing supply of baked beans and eggs.
Drawing on his experience in film, Stimpson’s powerfully dramatic pictures have been digitally worked and several are framed like film clips, adding to the filmic effect. Indeed I can see this book could well become a film. But for now, if like me you are a fan of re-workings of traditional stories, then get hold of a copy of this book.
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Red Riding Hood
James Marshall
Walker Books pbk
It’s good to see this new enlarged edition of a Marshall fairy tale first published about 25 years ago. James Marshall created several hilarious renditions of traditional tales and this is one of my favourites. Delivered in a direct, colloquial style, “Granny isn’t feeling up to snuff today… I’ve baked her favourite custard as a little surprise.” it is witty, and charming with a plethora of chubby moggies thrown in.
Red Riding Hood is so utterly beguiled by the charming-mannered wolf she meets on the way to Granny’s that she complies with his requests, allowing him to get there first, gobble up Granny and later, her as well. Then comes the brave hunter who, alarmed at the racket coming from Granny’s house, leaps through the window, cuts open the now slumbering, bulging bellied wolf and releases the contents of his stomach with Granny uttering, “It was so dark in
there I couldn’t read a word.”
Every scene of Marshall’s story is wonderful. Take for instance the perfect escort carrying the basket for Red Riding Hood who balances precariously along the log, and Granny, stack of books beside her bed, admonishing the wolf for interrupting her reading, or even the wolf with tail resting on the book-stack.

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If fairytales are your thing, or trolls or witches perhaps, then you might like to try the interactive

How to Find a Fairytale
Libby Hamilton and Tomislav Tomic
Templar Books
This one is packed with minibooks, maps, characters and objects to search for in the illustrations, flaps to open, a wheel to turn and a final ‘Happily Ever After’ stand out scene. There is a suitably old fashioned feel to the whole thing. Children will need to know some fairy tales already to get the most of out it so it’s not for the very young.
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