Richie's Picks: CLEVER JACK TAKES THE CAKE by Candace Fleming and G. Brian
Karas, ill., Schwartz & Wade, August 2010, 40p., ISBN: 978-0-375-84979-4
"Down the long narrow hall he was led
Into her rooms with her tapestries red
And she never once took the crown from her head
She asked him there to sit down.
He said, 'I see you now, and you are so very young
But I've seen more battles lost than I have battles won
And I've got this intuition, says it's all for your fun
And now will you tell me why?'"
-- Suzanne Vega, "The Queen and the Soldier"
I first learned about storytelling from my father's father. My
grandfather Rex Partington would tell stories about family members, friends, and
business associates, and I would learn family history while being entertained.
He'd tell the story about the year that they planted 96 tomato plants.
He'd tell about family dogs that were before my time.
One that forever impressed me was the story of how he realized late one
cold, rainy evening that he was out of cigarettes, and he prepared to go out
into the weather and walk to the store to purchase some more. (This was
before I was born, when they were living in Queens, and it took place during
a twenty-five year stretch when he did not own an automobile.) As he would
tell the story, he had just stepped out of the house when he came to the
realization that he was a slave to that habit. Instead of continuing on to
the store, he made a U-turn, went back in the house, and never smoked again.
As I grew up, I began building a repertoire of my own stories. I made
note of which ones made my listeners laugh, and I learned about pausing at the
right places and how to deliver a great punchline.
Fortunately, I have lived a relatively charmed life: I have repeatedly
experienced disaster narrowly averted without lasting consequence, and so a
lot of my stories are exciting but rarely are they tragic. Many of them
somehow relate to my thirty-one years of goat keeping. Those tinged with a bit
of sadness have to do with people who brightened my life but who are now
gone.
I love how remembering a story leads to other memories and other stories.
"There was Ragshag Bill from Buffalo, I never will forget
He would roar all day and he'd roar all night, and I guess he's roaring yet
One day he fell in a prospect hole, in a roaring bad design
And in that hole he roared out his soul in the days of '49
In the days of old, in the days of gold
How oft'times I repine, for the days of old
When we dug up the gold, in the days of '49
-- collected by Allen Lomax and sung by Bob Dylan
CLEVER JACK TAKES THE CAKE is a very fun story about the power of
storytelling.
"One summer morning long ago, a poor boy named Jack found an invitation
slipped beneath his cottage door. It read:
"His Majesty the King cordially invites all the children of the Realm to
the Princess's Tenth Birthday Party tomorrow afternoon in the Castle
Courtyard."
"'A party!' exclaimed Jack. 'For the princess!'
"His mother sighed. 'What a shame you can't go.'
"'Why not?' asked Jack.
"'Because we've nothing fine enough to give her,' his mother replied.
'And no money to buy a gift.'"
But Jack is indeed clever and he is not going to be deterred from
attending that party. He decides that he will make the princess a cake. And
though he doesn't have what he needs to implement the plan, he proceeds to
barter with neighbors and the neighborhood livestock in order to secure the
necessary ingredients.
"Then he set to work churning, chopping, blending, and baking."
Jack succeeds in baking one heck of a cake with candles, walnut lettering,
and an enormous strawberry on top.
But the next morning, when he sets off for the castle, he falls victim to
one difficulty after another. When he stops to pick a bouquet for the
princess, a flock of blackbirds make off with the bits of walnut that had
spelled "Happy Birthday, Princess." Then he encounters a wild-haired troll who
ends up with one layer of the cake in exchange for Jack's being able to
cross the bridge. And so it goes that, as the journey continues, bit by bit
the cake disappears. By the time Jack finally arrives at the castle, he is
left only with the enormous strawberry which is promptly consumed by a
castle guard.
Empty-handedly, Jack must approach the princess. But it turns out that
the princess is totally bored by the same old stuff (magnificent treasures)
that the other guests have brought her. In response to Jack's proceeding to
recount by way of explanation the circumstances by which he has arrived
without a gift,
"The princess laughed and clapped her hands in delight.
"'A story!' she exclaimed. 'And an adventure story at that!' What a fine
gift.'"
Thus, Jack and the princess become friends, and I am betting that, in
response to this great picturebook tale about the pleasure to be found in story,
you will be clapping your hands, too. I sure was.
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks _http://richiespicks.com_ (http://richiespicks.com/)
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
Moderator _http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_school_lit/_
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_http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/people/faculty/partingtonr/partingtonr.php_
(http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/people/faculty/partingtonr/partingtonr.php)
FTC NOTICE: Richie receives free books from lots of publishers who hope he
will Pick their books. You can figure that any review was written after
reading and dog-earring a free copy received. Richie retains these review
copies for his rereading pleasure and for use in his booktalks at schools
and libraries.
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