Customer Reviews

Calamity Jack

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

About the Book: Jack has long been a trickster-he's just not had the best of luck. When a heist involving magic beans, a beanstalk, and giants goes wrong, Jack leaves town. After his adventures with Rapunzel (in Rapunzel's Revenge) Jack returns home to Shyport only to discover that the giant Blunderboar is in charge, the city is in ruins thanks to a infestation of ant people, and his mother is being held captive by Blunderboar and in charge of baking bones into bread. It's up to Jack and Rapunzel to save the day!

GreenBeanTeenQueen Says: I'm often asked to give booktalks on great books for tweens and I always inlcude the Hale's first graphic novel outing, Rapunzel's Revenge. (and now Calamity Jack!) Rapunzel's Revenge and Calamity Jack are a librarian's dream come true! The Hale's combine witty dialogue, action and adventure, beautiful detailed artwork and lots of humor to create the perfect graphic novel. I would give this one to anyone who is not convinced in the value of graphic novels or anyone who's a newbie to graphic novels. (And of course old fans too!)

The fairy tale of Jack and Beanstalk is given the steampunk treatment in Calamity Jack and readers looking for a great adventure read will devour this one. There's even a cute bit of romance thrown in, so I think this one will have wide appeal. It is a sequel to Rapunzel's Revenge, but readers don't necessarily have to read the first one to pick this one up. The book starts with Jack's past and gives us a little information on Jack and Rapunzel met, so I doubt readers will feel lost.

As I mentioned, the dialouge is very witty-there were a few lines I just had to read aloud to my husband because they were too great to keep to myself. The artwork is very detailed-young Jack is pictured with his tounge out while thinking and we get a glimpse that Jack hasn't lost this habit as an adult. It's this attention to detail that make the art stand out. The text and illustrations pair perfectly and work together, which makes this an excellent example of a graphic novel. I can't wait to see the final full color, since the ARC came in black and white. (And be sure to check out the inside cover page for a peek at our author's and illustrator snuck into the artwork.)

This a book to share, to pass around to friends, and re-read because each time you'll see something new. I'm hoping we can look forward to more graphic novel's from this creative team-I'd love to see their take on other fairy tales.

If you have read the Hale team's other graphic novel "Rapunzel's Revenge", you will enjoy this further splash into yet another circa 1800s fairy tale blend with the dynamic duo of Rapunzel and Jack. If you haven't, well, this stands very well on its own with the classic "Jack and the Beanstalk" story set in a dangerous old-time city called Shyport, where giants control everything, including the cops.

Jack takes the reins here as he and his sweetheart Rapunzel return to settle old scores with the giant Jack robbed. We see Jack's history, both personal and the whole giant affair, and as a result he becomes all the more lovable.

The nature of the setting has not dimmed a whit. "Rapunzel's Revenge" had all the spunk of the Old West; "Calamity Jack" brings us the all the flavor and clout of a dirty city street where you don't know who to trust. The characters? Wow, this story has them. The gallant-but-evil giants, a gritty show pixie, and a rich inventor with nerdiness to spare.

The Hales have a strong bit of magic with the graphic novel, and this is another gem to join the first.

I had previously given the first book (Rapunzel's Revenge) to my youngest daughter (when she was 5 years old) and she loves this one just as much!

Jack is a little rascally but is redeemed and I have no problem with the number of times she's now reread this. She's now almost 7 and she's constantly still pulling it out to enjoy the story and the artwork. She loves to 'play' Rapunzel and Jack with her brother and sister out in the yard.

It's a winner for the whole family!

She wanted this more thna anything because Rapunzels Revenge is her favorite book. she read the whole thing as soon as she received it.

I'm new to the whole graphic novel thing, sometimes I'm so into the words I forget to really look at the pictures, but these are amazing pictures and a fantastic twist to the tales of Rapunzel and Jack and the Bean Stalk. My kids 10 and 13, girl and boy and enjoyed picking them up, too.

I enjoyed this more than the first, Rapunzel's Revenge, which I also loved . . . but there was just something about Jack's story that really appealled to me. Maybe it was the little fairy with the hat fetish . . . Maybe it was the giant, or the stronger steampunk element . . . All I know is, I couldn't put this book down!

Hale, Hale and Hale have done it again. A great graphic novel where all the parts come together perfectly. Witty dialog, fast pacing, good storytelling, excellent art. Along with Rapunzel's Revenge, Calamity Jack is one of the best graphic novels for a very wide range of ages.

My son is 7 years old and loves looking at this graphic novel over and over at bedtime. Good story and is enjoyable to read.

I was so excited to read more about Jack and Rapunzel as Book 1, Rapunzel's Revenge, was adorable and this book was no different! I'm not usually a fan of graphic novels, but I really enjoyed this one. It is jam packed with action, witty dialgoue and humor.

Calamity Jack had a great plot! It keeps you interested the entire time! You have Jack and Rapunzel off on more adventures, only this time they recruit some new help! The one thing I would've liked to see revisited a bit more was Jack and Rapunzel's friendship. You see it building much more in Rapunzel's Revenge, and I would've love to see a bit more of it in Calamity Jack. I felt as if the connection between them wasn't as apparant.

I absolutely love the pictures in Calamity Jack! The cover is gorgeous, and the drawings are just plain awesome! Calamity Jack is a great entertaining read that doesn't take a long time to read. It's cute, has action, and has pictures you could stare at all day!

Whenever a book comes out of nowhere to pleasantly surprise me like Rapunzel's Revenge did, I worry about the sequel. Will it be as good? Or was the first one just a fluke? Compounding this worry was the fact that in the meantime I had tried The Actor and the Housewife, Ms. Hale's second novel for adults, and found it wanting. Turns out, I needn't have worried; Calamity Jack is very nearly all I could have desired in a return to the universe of Rapunzel's Revenge.

And what a universe it is! Only hinted at in Rapunzel's Revenge, Calamity Jack reveals an entire planet of steampunk and magic, based loosely upon our 19th Century world with some significant differences. So far our heroes' adventures have all taken place in a tiny part of something called the New World Territories, obviously based largely upon the western United States; now the action shifts to the bustling metropolis of Shyport (Chicago?), which seems to be located on the east coast of this magical-creature-filled New World, across the ocean from the equally magical-creature-filled Old World place of origin for so many of the immigrant protagonists.

Hapless Jack's back story and parts of the climax are presented like scenes from The Sting, with clever titles and cleverly drawn title cards for each scam, and the tension steadily mounts along with the challenges: can Jack save his mother, take on the Ant People, expose the bad guys, and keep Rapunzel's trust when she learns the truth about him? However, this increasing tension does not preclude plenty of laugh-out-loud humor.

Defects? Only a few minor nits are worth picking. A shocking and rather half-witted betrayal is resolved a bit too quickly and a bit too neatly IMHO though I'll grant that time was short, and Freddie Sparksmith III, an overly broad parody of the stereotypical juvenile series book hero (Tom Swift perhaps?) seems to be in the wrong book. (He'd fit a lot better into M. T. Andersons' Thrilling Tales or Pals in Peril outrageous parody juvenile series: Whales on Stilts, The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen, and Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware.) Freddie is portrayed as such a dolt for most of the book that he fails to pose any plausible threat to Rapunzel's affections for Jack.

But these are minor criticisms; I anxiously await the next book in this series!