Reviews

This is the House that Jack Built by Simms Taback

sducharme's review against another edition

4.0

Jack builds a house and the first item in it is a piece of cheese. In each new verse, an animal or person is added until the house is bursting with activity. So is it any wonder why the house is still for sale?

Multi-media illustrations are Taback's signature style and they are a great fit for this book. There's a folksy, disjointed feeling throughout, and it's fun to read together as kids understand the cumulative pattern of the story.

hldillon's review against another edition

4.0

It all started with a piece of cheese. Each page a new character is added to the storyline. This book contains great repetition which would be good for kids so they can follow along and participate with telling the story

mariahroze's review against another edition

3.0

"This is The House that Jack Built, a favorite rhyme for children for several centuries, was first published in 1755 and probably derived from an ancient Hebrew chant in the 16th century."

This book has great illustrations! They are hilarious! The book is also very easy to follow a long and is very repetitive, so a great book for students to work on their reading and their sight words.

libraryrobin's review against another edition

4.0

Retelling of the classic cumulative story with fabulous frenetic Taback collage illustrations. Gotta love it!

veritas19's review against another edition

5.0

This took me longer to read then most. The illustrations are very busy! There is so much going on. As each character makes an appearance, the artist chose to put all kinds of extra things on the page to tickle our fancy. At the very beginning, before the story even began, there was a list of all of the characters to expect throughout the story. This gives the children a little heads up about who all will be involved but gives none of the story away. It starts with the cheese, then the rat and then the cat. The rat ate the cheese the cat killed the rat and the pattern continues throughout. I liked the cats page because it had fliers at the bottom with the many different types of cats listed on them including Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat and Felix the Cat. I liked that each illustration was meticulously painted and had newspaper clippings sprinkled throughout each page. I found myself bringing the book close to my face to get a better look at all of the small details. This was a very intricate book based on a book previously done by Randolph Caldecott. Ages 4-8

maidmarianlib's review

3.0

Classic rendition of the rhyme, love the added information at the bottom of the main pictures and the little surprise at the end.

dreesreads's review against another edition

4.0

Great illustrations.