WHEN JACK MEETS JILL

Drawing on fairy-tale tropes, this illustrated chapbook offers a back story for the “Jack and Jill” nursery rhyme.

Shang (Living in Hong Kong, 1986, etc.) begins his first children’s book with Jack, 11, and his younger sister, Bella, 7. Jack’s father is a farmer in Happyville, and his mother has died, so Jack does chores, including climbing the nearby hill to fetch water from the pond. On Happyville’s other hill lives the mayor. Self-centered and power-hungry, he forced the townsfolk to elect him, and his character may explain why his wife left him and their daughter, Jill, a 10-year-old extreme-sports enthusiast. The mayor showers Jill with unwanted princess dresses and dollhouses while demanding continual gifts from the townsfolk. Ironically, he forbids any shows of happiness or kind deeds in Happyville—a challenge for Jack, who loves to hum and whistle, and the baker, who loves to treat Happyville children to baked goods. When the mayor thinks Jack’s family is behaving disrespectfully, he demands eight-tenths of all the farm’s produce. Jill, for her part, is tired of her father’s ill-chosen gifts, and she longs for her mother. But things start to change when the mayor hires the kind, yet somewhat witchlike, Nanny Dob to look after Jill. She stuffs all the unwanted gifts into cupboards, buys Jill a skateboard and lets her go out on her own, which leads to Jill’s, for the first time, traveling to the other hill and meeting and becoming friends with Jack, providing hope that Happyville may become happy again. The generic elements from Mother Goose are combined with today’s technology and interests—extreme sports, cellphones, iPads—matter-of-factly, treating the fairy-tale elements as happenstance. Aside from enjoying the cute though not spectacular black-and-white illustrations, young readers may appreciate finding the familiar subplots and characters—the witch, the giant, the duel, the comeuppance for the baddy, the happy ending—in a new setting, although adults may find a bit of heavy-handedness. The epilogue goes quite a bit afield, seeming to portend a sequel.

A blend of 21st-century realism and fairy tale that should entertain tweens.