978-1-954354-25-8
Hardcover
32pp, color
10in x 7in
Fiction/Fairy Tales & Folklore
4 to 9
October 2023
$18.99
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"In this wordless retelling of “Jack and the Beanstalk,” a young girl meets a giant—and discovers the giant within herself. When a towering beanstalk sprouts overnight in Olive’s yard, she climbs into the world of a giant; together, they dance the day away high above the ground. Upon her return, however, she realizes that “giant” is all a matter of perspective. Dramatic illustrations use sharp black lines and gentle shading; in a playful nod to the titular character, olive is the only color."
— Foreword Reviews
Olive
By Jed Alexander
Who is the real giant in this wordless story inspired by Jack and the Beanstalk?
Your point of view matters in this page-turning journey into what it means to be small and big. The reader holding the book may turn out to be the biggest giant of all! The critically-acclaimed author-illustrator of Gold is back again with another charmer, one sure to be savored again and again as each reader tells their own story inspired by the pictures.
"A climb up an unusually tall tree rewards an intrepid child with exhilarating adventures and readers with some large (and small) insights.
As he’s done before in Red (2018) and Gold (2022), Alexander adds single-color highlights (here a light, translucent green) to finely detailed line drawings for a wordless rendition of a familiar folktale kitted with expectation-confounding twists. An East Asian–presenting child clambers up a humongous olive tree that has grown up overnight and gets a friendly reception at the top by a giant—also East Asian—who offers an olive the size of a basketball as a snack, then sets the tiny visitor on one shoulder and proceeds to dance and spin balletically on the clouds. Following a short nap beneath a big leaf, the little child climbs back down to the ground and abruptly becomes the giant by bending down to offer a ride to a tiny mouse. All the dancing, plus spread layouts that switch from horizontal to vertical and back, give a playful lilt to these sudden, dramatic changes of scale and perspective. Along with giving budding critical skills a workout by inviting comparisons with the original, this inspired take on “Jack and the Beanstalk” is sure to plant seeds of thought about how “big” and “little” are relative notions. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A heady spin, rich in thought-provoking themes and fee-fi-fo-fun tweaks. (Picture book. 5-8)"
— Kirkus Reviews
