Seriously Seeking Housing! Jack by Tomie dePaola

ONE DAY JACK SAID, "I WANT TO SEE THE WORLD AND MAKE NEW FRIENDS AND LIVE IN A HOUSE IN THE CITY."

"WHY DON'T YOU GO TO THE CITY AND ASK THE KING?" SAID JACK'S GRANDPA.

Since time immemorial, young folks have set out into the wide world to find their fortunes, to make their way in their own way, and in his adaptation of folklore's "Jack tales," Caldecott-winner Tomie dePaola's Jack (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2014) is off on his personal quest.

Jack is a mellow redhead who soon attracts a following, beginning with a tiny yellow chick who peeps out a greeting and scoots along behind Jack. In short order, a duck spots the small procession and asks if he can go along.

"YES, PLEASE DO!" JACK SAID.

With his peeping and quacking friends behind him, Jack soon welcomes a retinue of animals, a goose, dog, frog, pig, cow, cat, sheep, horse and owl, and even a crow who flies along without asking permission. With all the honking, woofing, croaking, oinking, mooing, meowing, baaing, whinnying, hooting and cawing, Jack's reputation precedes him as he enters the city.

"GOOD AFTERNOON, KING," SAID JACK.

"MY FRIENDS AND I WOULD LIKE TO LIVE IN THE CITY. CAN YOU HELP US FIND A HOUSE?"

Fortune smiles on Jack as usual. It seems that there is a run-down house in one neighborhood that needs a tenant to sort it out.

"YOU MIGHT NEED TO FIX IT UP, BUT I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT."  SAID THE KING.

The house is dilapidated, but soon the critter cacophony is joined by the sound of sawing and hammering, and when the house is repainted in a bright pink and orange coat of paint, the animals find that each one of them has his own window on the street. Peeps, quacks, honks woofs, ribbits, oinks, moos, meows, baas, neighs, hoots, and caws (from the roof) fill the street with happy noise.

"THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD," GRUMBLED THE NEIGHBORHOOD CURMUDGEON.

"ABOUT TIME!" SAID HIS WIFE.

In a light-hearted palette and his familiar folkloric style, Tomie dePaola's latest introduces primary students to the Jack tale. In the many tales in English literature, Jack is a sort of everyboy, eager to try his luck in the world, best known in the classic Jack and the Beanstalk.

In this simple tale, there are no giants or ogres, just an amiable lad setting out on a modest quest. But getting there is half the fun, and dePaola populates the background behind Jack's little parade with many folktale characters setting off into their own adventures--Jack and Jill with their pail and Red Riding Hood heading off the path and into the wood--which will give sharp-eyed readers a chuckle with each page turn. DePaola has a way of giving each of his stories its own irresistible eye appeal, and he pulls out all the stops in this lovely book, filling the pages with colorful rubber stamp interjections from his animal characters and setting his glowing colors as standouts against his characteristic bright white pages. In this playful introduction to English folk literature, dePaola shows that he's still the master of picture book art.

Say What? Nellie May Has Her Say by Cynthia DeFelice

NELLY MAY NIMBLE LIVED IN A TINY COTTAGE IN THE BOTTOMS WITH HER PARENTS, SIX YOUNGER BROTHERS AND SIX YOUNGER SISTERS.

THERE WAS NEVER ENOUGH FOOD TO FEED SO MANY HUNGRY MOUTHS.

"I'M OLD ENOUGH TO EARN MY BOARD AND KEEP," NELLY MAY NIMBLE TOLD HER PARENTS.

"AND I HEARD THAT LORD IGNASIUS PINKWINKLE NEEDS A NEW HOUSEKEEPER AND COOK."

Nelly May is a gal with gumption, and soon she's bundled up her few belongings  and sets off up the hill  to seek her fortune.

Lord Ignatius Pinkwinkle is hiring, all right. But the conditions of employment are downright strange.

"I HAVE SPECIAL NAMES FOR THINGS, AND I EXPECT YOU TO USE THEM WHENEVER YOU SPEAK TO ME," he said.

"CERTAINLY, SIR," said Nelly May.

"FIRST AND FOREMOST, YOU ARE NOT TO CALL ME 'SIR.'

YOU ARE TO CALL ME 'MOST EXCELLENT OF ALL MASTERS.'"

A bit pompous, but all right, thinks Nelly May, but even this eager employee is taken a bit aback by Lord Pinkwinkle's nomenclature--his bed is a slumberific, and his trousers are limberjohns. His fireplace is pop-and-sizzle  and his dog is his fluffenbarker and wigger-wagger.  Nelly May herself is  his fuzzy-dust-and-fooder, and her mop bucket is a wet scooperooty.

Hmmmph!  thinks Nelly May. But she is a clever girl and readily masters the Pinkwinkle lingo on pain of losing her  job straightaway if she misspeaks.  All goes well with Nelly and the circumlocutions until the day disaster strikes--and so does Nelly May Nimble!

With the aid of the peerless Henry Cole's illustrations, Cynthia De Felice's Nelly May Has Her Say (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2013) works its way felicitously through the paces of John Jacobs' classic English folktale Master of All Masters, (A Thistle book) in which Nelly May, confronted with the daunting and  tongue-twisting task of trying to tell her boss  that the house is on fire, negotiates a more reasonable contract with Lord Pinkwinkle, "Most Excellent of All Masters," hereinafter to be known as "Pinky." Cole's homey cottage and self-important Pinkwhistle ensconced in his manor are classic comic art, and DeFelice's retelling with all new silly substitutions is just as witty as the original. "Jocular and sparking with energy, an old tale gets a new turn," says Kirkus in its starred review, and the stars comes out in School Library Journal's and Booklist's reviews as well.