This was a fantastic retelling of the classic jack and the bean stalk but the Ben Hatke retelling made this story come alive with its vivid illustration. This is about a boy named Jack who lives with his autistic sister and their mother who struggles to make ends meet.  He recognizes the struggle that his mother must face to make ends meet. Jack as a character is easy to love because he is able to understand the situation he and is his family are in. 

Unlike the character from the original Jack and the beanstalk, he understands his circumstances and his kindness and compassion is shown through this book. The Jack from the original story is selfish and this leads him to make a poor choice but Jack makes his choice based off what he thinks is right for his family. This leads hims to contemplate getting a summer job to help his mother around the house. Instead his sister brings up the idea of selling their mother's car to buy beans. These beans create a magical garden where Jack, his sister and Maddy take charge of fighting off the garden.  The strong female characters made this book even easier to love, even with Jack's little sister dealing with autism ,his love for his sister was shown throughout the book. It was beautiful to see a young boy work hard to keep his sister safe and try and help his mother.

This book did leave off with a cliffhanger but it is definitely worth the read. It was a quick read but it is worth the adventure it illustrated with the many creatures it showed.

This graphic novel was written with a contemporary feel which makes it easy for anyone to pick up and read.

He also has a second book after this one which I will be reading after this class. 

This is an image I was able to find from the book just so you can see what Ben Hatke's art style is like.

Links:

• https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/world-autism-awareness-day
• http://us.macmillanstaging.supadu.com/author/benhatke
• http://www.povertyusa.org/the-state-of-poverty/poverty-facts/