Customer Reviews

The Giants and the Joneses

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

 

 

My girls - 5 and 8 - love this book. I read it to them three months ago and we still talk about "igglyplops" and "bealy" things. The story is compelling -- three kids in a world of giants. The giants have their own language, but kids can identify with the giant childrens' normal everyday lives. There's an imagined world, suspense, and siblings who grow to love one another -- who could ask for anything else?

The Giants and the Joneses begins where Jack and the Beanstalk leaves off. In our time, the Giants of the land of Groil still tell the story of "Jack and the Beanstalk." But no one really believes in the "Iggly Plops" or the Little People. No one except an eight-year old giant named Jumbeelia. Jumbeelia drops a bean over the edge of Groil and the next day she climbs down a giant beanstalk where she collects a few new toys - including the three Jones children.

This is a fun story with the added challenge of a make-believe giant language to decode. (A dictionary is included.) The story does get a little scary when Jumbeelia's brother captures the Jones children and mistreats them, but this shouldn't be enough to put most children off. In addition, this story may lead readers to contemplate sibling relationships, treatment of smaller, helpless creatures, and whether there may be truth in legends.

The book Giants and the Joneses was great. I liked how the book was based on Jack and the Beanstalk. I liked how the book had its own dictionary too. I recommend this book to a lot of people. I hope she writes a sequel. I can't wait to read her other books.

This is an incredible book! I teach 2nd grade and used it to teach about context clues. The kids were mesmerized!!

A treasure. We listened to it on tape first. Absolutely captivating, both clever and charming.

This is what I wish I had known about this book before reading it to my children: After the children are abducted from their home they are subjected to various tortures which include: being almost intentionally drowned in a bath and sucked down the drain, being buried in sand up to their heads and threatened with giant insects, being juggled, being forced to eat giant hot peppers, used as crash-test-dummies in a remote control car, dangled out of windows, locked in jars with giant wasps and a pin for defence, and forced to do other things.
Here's a quote: "This miniature girl was the perfect victim for the experiments and tortures that he could only dream of inflicting on his life-size sister. He sqeezed her more tightly as her carried her into his room. Still smiling, he zipped her up in his gym bag..."
As an adult, I found these occurences - some of which were particularly, vividly protrayed through the eyes of the tortured children - rather upsetting and it was upsetting to my children as well.
We also found the constant Groilish a little annoying at times, just wishing for some plain english.
It is a well written book however but may not be enjoyable or appropriate for all children. I just found it depressing if anything.

My 7-year old daughter checked this book out at her school library and it quickly became her constant companion. She loved the book so much that she begged us to get her own copy of it. Not only does she like the story of little people, but the characters have their own language ('Groilish'). It has inspired her to come up with her own language ('Isabel-ish').

I read this to my daughter aged about 6 and thought it was great - so good that I bought a second copy and am currently reading it to my school class (aged 7-8). There are short chapters and "silly" giant-language, the characters are children aged from teenage to 3 so all ages are involved, and a great plot tying it all together. Well worth it.

If you love the B.F.G by Roald dahl, if you like stories about "little people" like The Borrowers and The Littles, if you are in search of a great read aloud for your seven year old, this is the book to choose! As you know, there are no such things as giants, and the giants tell their children there are no such things as beanstalks or iggly plops. Or are there?