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Compiled by Tina L. Hanlon
Back to Folktale Bibliography Index and General Picture Book List
Notes: Many titles below contain direct links to the Annotated Index of Tales by Title. Beginning in summer 2001, more details are being added to those annotations than to entries on this page. However, some entries below are based on folk songs or tales not grouped with others in the Annotated Index. The term folktale is used very broadly on these pages to include many kinds of folklore retellings or adaptations in books, recordings, dramas, and films. Other Jack Tales can be found on AppLit's pages on folktale collections, background resources, and audio and video retellings. A number of Jack Tale texts appear in the Fiction and Poems section of AppLit.
Some links on these pages are to author pages and related materials outside AppLit. Links for many of the people who created these picture books are also given in Background Resources on One Author, Illustrator, Storyteller, Dramatist, or Filmmaker. AppLit also contains many study guides and articles on Jack Tales and dramatizations by the Jack Tale Players. Carl Lindahl's excellent 1994 introduction to the tradition of British-American Jack Tales.is reprinted at “Jacks: The Name, The Tales, The American Traditions” in Folkstreams.net.
Some other Jack tales are listed in Folktale Resources Outside Appalachia.
Birdseye, Tom. Look Out, Jack! The Giant is Back! Illus. Will Hillenbrand. New York: Holiday House, 2001.
Chase, Richard. Jack and the Three Sillies. Illus. Joshua Tolford. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1950. An Appalachian version of a classic tale about foolish behavior. Jack has a wife who learns that others are more foolish than he is. Exercise on Appalachian Language in Jack and the Three Sillies.
Chase, Richard. Wicked John and the Devil. Illus. Joshua Tolford. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1951. Black and white and color illustrations depict the red devils outwitted by a blacksmith so mean that he is denied access to heaven and hell when he dies. (See Woolridge, Wicked Jack below.) "Based on an oral version I first heard told by Mrs. Jenning L. Yowell of Albemarle County, Virginia" (Chase).
Compton, Joanne and Kenn. Jack the Giant Chaser: An Appalachian Tale. New York: Holiday House, 1993. Jack uses his wits to get rid of the giant up on Balsam Mountain. “Joanne Compton’s Jack and the Giant Chaser is one of the finest of the trickster Jack tales. Jack’s ingenuity and the Giant’s stupidity have undying appeal” (Roberta Herrin, "Southern Pot of Soup." Southern Exposure. Summer 1996, p. 61.)
Davis, Donald. Jack and the Animals: An Appalachian Folktale. Illus. Kitty Harvill. Little Rock: August House Little Folk, 1995. Similar to "The Bremen Town Musicians"; a mountain boy and five elderly animals find their fortune in a robbers' den. Also called "Jack and the Robbers" in Chase's Jack Tales and R. Rex Stephenson's Jack Tales dramas. Page on storyteller/author Donald Davis.
Haley,
Gail E. Jack and the Bean Tree. New York: Crown, 1986. N. pag. The giant's lavish mansion up in the magic bean tree contrasts
with Jack's poor country home, but he manages to bring riches down to his
Maw and escape the bloodthirsty giant.
Haley, Gail E. Jack and the Fire Dragon. New York: Crown,
1988. N. pag. Haley's colorful linocut illustrations show brave
Jack rescuing three sisters from a giant mountain man who turns into a fierce
dragon underground.
Hicks, Ray. The Jack Tales. As told to Lynn Salsi. Illus. Owen Smith. New York: Callaway, 2001. A tall, attractive picture book, sold with CD of oral tellings in an envelope attached to the end papers. Contains "Jack and the North-West Wind," "Jack and the Bean Tree," and "Jack and the Robbers." Both full-page color illustrations and smaller black and white drawings are somewhat reminiscent of the style of Thomas Hart Benton. Includes glossary of mountain terms and background on Ray Hicks as North Carolina storyteller, a master of the native oral tradition. Hicks' oral tellings are not identical to the written text in every detail, inviting interesting comparison of oral and written versions of the same tale. An ALA Notable Children's Book for 2001. See also page on this book by a Louisiana State University Librarian.
Johnson, Paul Brett. Fearless Jack. New York: Margaret K. McElderry, 2001. N. pag.
Johnson, Paul Brett. Jack Outwits the Giant. New York: Margaret McElderry, 2002. Jack plays tricks on a dumb two-headed giant.
Pack, Linda Hager. A is for Appalachia! The Alphabet Book of Appalachian Heritage. Illus. Pat Banks. Prospect, KY: Harmony House Publishers, 2002. The author, from Hamlin, WV, reprints two tales by Leonard Roberts : "The Devil's Big Toe" on the page "G is for ghost stories" (p. 16), and "Jack and the Bean Stalk" on the page "J is for the clever boy in the Jack Tales" (pp. 20-22). Pack stresses that "Jack was a country boy just like the children who loved hearing about him." The tales are from Sang Branch Settlers and Old Greasybeard (see Roberts in Appalachian Folktale Collections). Other pages describe traditional folkways, language, and customs. Watercolor illustrations are by an artist from Madison County, KY.
Spaulding, Minnie K. Jack
and His Dogs. Illus. Jane Kelm. Johnson City, Tenn: Don & Mignon, 1972.
Abstract from WorldCat: An Appalachian tale of Jack and his three dogs, who
rid the woods of a bear. Music by Ottie Merle Stuckenbruck, Rachael Barrett.
The introduction says that "no one knows where this story originated. However,
it was told in Louisa County, Virginia." (ETSU library has a copy, Oct. 2007.)
Still, James.
Jack and the Wonder Beans. Illus. Margot Tomes. 1977. Rpt. Lexington, KY: University
Press of Kentucky, 1996. The poet laureate of Kentucky retells the Appalachian
story of Jack and the Bean Stalk. Page on James Still by Dr. Steve Mooney at VA Tech.
Woolridge, Connie Nordhielm (adapter). Wicked Jack. Illus. Will Hillenbrand. New York: Holiday House, 1995. Cartoonlike comedy and haunting mystery combine in this story of mean Jack the blacksmith, who is excluded from heaven and hell after he outwits the devil.
Page created August 2002. Last update: 05/11/2008
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