Common Sense Note
The artwork is a sumptuous eyeful, the story has the classical and fun circular motif, and the writing is jocular, if a bit snickery.
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Peter Lewis
Never one to leave anything well enough alone, Scieszka puts a tack on the chair where the nursery rhyme "The House That Jack Built" heretofore comfortably sat. Why, Scieszka seems to wonder, settle for singsong when a little mayhem enlivens the proceedings? But parody ought to choose its targets carefully, and this one sure feels underage.
Most fun here is unraveling the time-space reversals at work. Why is the baby humming a tune wearing a pie for a hat, and what got him so pumped as to toss the cow sailing over the moon?
A good time can also be had identifying the various characters: the Mad Hatter, Humpty Dumpty, the cow that jumped over the moon. One eight-year-old's eyes lit up each time he made a connection: "A rat with dark glasses? A blind rat? Three blind mice!" And a cat's smile gave the feline away, though those teeth looked mighty human.
Adel's paintings are full of Rembrandt light and rich, rich color. The frames painted around the artwork give the impression of deep-dish pies, still hot and ready for the introduction of a fork.
Scieszka's The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales and The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs are particularly successful parodies, as is Helen Ketteman's Bubba the Cowboy Prince.
Plot Summary:
Jon Scieszka and Daniel Adel take "The House That Jack Built" and transform it into a dark, if artistically splendid, circular tale with the surrealist's odd touch here and there. Cheeky fun for more advanced readers--lots of literary references and sophisticated sight gags here--though they might, unfortunately, feel they're beyond a nursery-rhyme remake.
Rate It!
| Content | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CS | adults | kids | ||
Sexual Content |
 |
|||
ViolenceEach character gets smooshed, tossed, pushed, or frightened. |
 |
|||
Language |
|
|||
Message |
|
|||
Social Behavior |
 |
|||
Commercialism |
|
|||
Drug/Alcohol/Tobacco |
|
|||
