From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3-A nose who lives with his parents, two eyes, goes to the market to trade the family's prized pair of eyeglasses for some much-needed food.Instead, he makes a trade with an old ear for a magic mustache that grows a beard that reaches to the sky. The nose climbs the beard, just as Jack, from "Jack and the beard talk," did before him. After two successful journeys in which he steals a golden toothbrush and a magic straw, the nose narrowly escapes the hungry giant mouth with a magic harmonica in tow. All ends well as the various body parts tumble to the ground and form a face (not unlike Mr. Potato Head). Amazingly, the author pulls it all off quite nicely, making the events sound somehow perfectly logical. The text exudes a partly irreverent, partly earnest tone and incorporates lots of wordplay. Appropriately, the art is pure silliness. The watercolor, gouache, and pen-and-ink illustrations show a nose with spindly arms and legs, a baseball cap, sweat socks, and high tops. He plays with his little red wagon, climbs down a ladder, peeks into a soup pot, and engages in all types of human behavior. The playful layout, with lines of type that rise and dip across the pages, adds to the fun. A delightfully wacky romp.
Denise E. Agosto, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
This a rollicking, tongue-in-cheek retelling of the Jack and the Beanstalk fairy tale, full of puns, sly jokes, good humor and above all, nonsense ... The text has the right note of nonsense and a sense of the ridiculous. The illustrations, done in water color, gouache and pen-and-ink, reflect the crazy mixed up universe portrayed here. --
Resource Links, Council for Canadian Learning Resources, Dec 1999
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
