Jack and the Beanstalk, Grades PK - 3: Juan y los frijoles magicos

By Carol Ottolenghi

English-Spanish Version

In this beloved tale, Jack watches in amazement as his magic beans grow into a beanstalk that reaches beyond the clouds! Children will eagerly continue reading to see whether Jack can sneak past a hungry giant to rescue the golden harp.

Between the pages of the Brighter Child(R) Keepsake Stories books are the classic tales of magic, imagination, and inspiration that will delight children again and again. From the hard-working Red Hen to the foolish Gingerbread Man, these stories will capture children's interest and spark their imagination page after page, inspiring a lifelong love of literature and reading. Each book includes 32 pages of fresh, captivating illustrations, and measures 8" x 8".

• Language: English
• Publisher: Carson-Dellosa Publishing
• Release date: Oct 22, 2012
• ISBN: 9781624421778

Carol Ottolenghi

Carol Ottolenghi has written nonfiction and fiction books for adults and children for almost 20 years. In 1996, she won the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Magazine Merit Honor Award. One of her stories was selected for Best of the Children's Market by the Institute of Children's Literature. She currently lives in Ohio.

Reviews for Jack and the Beanstalk, Grades PK - 3

[lmckeon_5 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great American classic tale. I grew up reading Jack and the Beanstalk. This is an exciting classic tale about Jack and his magic beans growing a beanstalk. All children will love this story and using their imagination to think about a giant living way up in the sky. Great book for children.

[ceoliver-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is a classic. No matter how many times it gets read, it never gets old. You could have your class say "fee, fi, fo, fum! I smell the blood of a little one" with you when the giant says it. This would be a great way for them to get involved.

[sflores6-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This story is about a boy who tries to help his poor mother and buys magical beans. The beans grow and takes him to a different world.This story is a good story to read to children. This book is a great story for building imagination and it takes you to this whole different world. A good activity for this is to relate it to planting. You can have the children make a garden and as a class watch how it grows over time.

[eschoe1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book. I think the author did a great job maintaining the same classic story. I enjoyed the colorful illustrations. I think it's important to add creating pictures in book like these so that children can visualize what is happening while reading. I also like the plot. I think it's very sweet that the little boy is helping his family in time of need. He puts himself in danger to provide for his ill mother. The overall message of this story is the importance of family.

[jamielewis-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Jack and the Beanstalk is part traditional literature which does not always have a typical main message. In this book, I would say the main theme is the boy finding his own way to help out his family. Even though it might not be necessarily right, he gets away with it in the end. One reason I liked this book was the organization of the text. On each page there is a couple of sentences in English telling the story. Then underneath separated by a boarder, is the exact same sentences but in Spanish text. For example on the last page, the top of the text reads, "Jack, his mother, the goose, and the harp lived happily ever after." Then underneath it reads, "Juan, su mama, ele ganso y el arpa vivieron felices para siempre." It allows more people to enjoy this story and the paragraph organization makes it easier to read. Another reason I liked this book was the variety of illustrations that were used page to page. For example, on one page the majority is text surrounded by a boarder of magic beans. Underneath the text there is just a picture of a large pot and pan. The page next to it though, is a top to bottom picture of the giant covering the whole page. It keeps the story lively because it is not repeating the same technique over and over again.

[bholcomb86 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a fun book to read with elementary school students. The book uses conventional vocabulary that is appropriate for 2nd and 3rd grade students. You can also link this text to the math curriculum. Students can learn about measurement by evaluating the length of the beanstalk, and you can also design an activity where students create their own story beanstalks. The students will use green paper and colored pencils to build a beanstalk with drawings summarizing the fundamental concepts of the book.

[t1bclasslibrary · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the traditional tale of Jack and the Beanstalk. Jack does some stealing, but we discover that what he steals used to belong to his family (though he did not know it while stealing the gold). This breaches the moral question- was it wrong for him to steal when the giant had more than he needed? What about when he finds out that the giant originally stole these items from his family?