The Jack Tales

Chase, R.  (1943).  The Jack tales.  New York:  Houghton Mifflin Company.

         The Jack Tales, by Richard Chase, is a traditional children’s book that consists of eighteen English folk tales from the southern Appalachians.  The main character and protagonist in each folk tale is Jack.  Jack’s appearance can be described as simplistic and plain as, “He and his folks lived off in the mountains somewhere and they were awful poor, just didn’t have a thing.” (pg. 3).  His personality can be described often as lazy, “…sometimes, just wouldn’t do ary lick of work.” (pg. 3).  The plot in each folk tale is simple and usually consists of a person-against-person conflict.  One example of this type of conflict is when Jack fights and kills the giant in “Jack and the Giants’ Newground.”

         If you’re from the Appalachian region, you are probably familiar with many of the southern expressions that were used in the folk tales such as, “…and I’ll come back there and smack the fire out-a you!” (pg. 12), “…he gave plumb out…” (pg. 22), and “…you look-a-here!” (pg. 32).  I’ll have to admit that I struggled to read the tales because of the strong southern accent/diction and the characters’ use of poor grammar.  I tried to read it out loud to see if it would help, but I seemed to tumble over the words even more.  I would love to put this book on my read-aloud list, but I’m going to need more practice with a poor grammar southern accent!

After reading the folk tales, I would have to say that my favorites were “Jack and the Bean Tree”, “Jack and the Robbers”, and “Jack and the North West Wind.”  “Jack and the Bean Tree” was very similar to a widely known tale, Jack and the Bean Stalk.  I had never heard of the tale, “Jack and the Robbers”, but the plot seemed familiar.  I soon realized the plot was similar to the story The Brementown Musicians.  In “Jack and the Robbers”, Jack joins together with an ox, a donkey, a dog, a cat, and rooster because their owners wanted to “get shet of them.”  The animals’ owners in The Brementown Musicians do not want them anymore, so they also get together.  In both stories the animals work together to get rid of the robbers, and the robbers never realize it was the animals that scared them away.  The animals in The Brementown Musicians go on to be famous musicians while the animals in “Jack and the Robbers” take possession of the robbers’ house and have a big time.

         The illustrator, Berkeley Williams, Jr., used black and white drawings throughout the book to highlight the main events in Jack’s adventures.  There were usually two drawings to go with each tale.

         I chose to read The Jack Tales because Dr. Gibson recommended it as a great read-aloud.  I was also interested to read about a book that was rooted in Appalachian culture because I was raised and still live close to the Appalachian area.  I would recommend this book to others because it is a fun, quick read filled with humorous and adventurous tales.

         Some BIG questions you could ask your students are, “If you could be Jack in one of these tales, which would you choose?  Why?  How can you relate to Jack in these tales?