HAPPY JACK: A Folktale

by Malcolm--Adapt. Carrick ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1979

Happy Jack is a European peasant-style Epaminondas, whose mother scolds him for losing his first day's pay. ""You should have put your money in your pocket,"" she cries, and so that is what he does with the next day's payment in milk. And so it goes until, carrying a donkey home on his back, Jack makes the mayor's sad daughter laugh--thereby winning both her hand and ""pots and pots of money."" Carrick's handling of the story is merely uninspired, but his pictures are truly revolting. At one point contenders for the girl's laughter are seen dousing each other with yucky green and red paint. So far, so good--but the cheese Jack spills on his head is the same bilious green, and worse yet, even when the action doesn't call for it, every figure in the book seems to be smeared with a gloppy mess of the same two garbagey colors.

Pub Date: March 1, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1979

Categories: CHILDREN'S