Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Dallas Public Library | + PRIMARY - SPIEGELMAN (BLUE) | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Woodburn Public Library | 1-2 TOON | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Jack just got a new toy, and it's full of surprises. Each time the box pops open, there's a new and bigger surprise. Is it a silly toy, a scary toy... or something else entirely?
Author Notes
Art Spiegelman was born in Stockholm, Sweden on February 15, 1948. He is the son of Polish Jews who survived imprisonment in Auschwitz. His family immigrated to the United States. He became a professional cartoonist at the age of 16. He studied art and philosophy at Harpur College.
He became a creative consultant, designer, and writer for Topps Chewing Gum, Inc., where he created Wacky Packages, Garbage Pail Kids and other novelty items. The Complete Mr. Infinity was published in 1970 and won the Joel M. Cavior Award for Jewish Writing. In 1980, Spiegelman and his wife, Françoise Mouly founded the avant-garde comics magazine RAW. His best known work Maus: A Survivor's Tale, was published in 1986 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. His other works include Maus: A Survivor's Tale II, In the Shadow of No Towers, Breakdowns, Jack and the Box, Be a Nose, and The Ghosts of Ellis Island. MetaMaus won the 2011 National Jewish Book Award in the Biography, Autobiography, and Memoir category.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-2-A mischievous, easy-to-read comic story similar in tone and audience to The Cat in the Hat. Jack receives a jack-in-the-box as a present. Its manically entertaining occupant, Zack, keeps its owner guessing. Fortunately, when the fun gets out of hand, Zack and his friend Mack save Jack by wanting to trade the lamp they broke for a brand-new one, produced from inside the box. While the story is wacky, the cartoon artwork will appeal to a broad range of lower-level readers. True to its comic-strip roots, without the clutter that some children have a hard time reading, this title is a surefire hit.-Sarah Provence, Churchill Road Elementary School, McLean, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
A skeptic might not think that the Pulitzer Prize winner who made a graphic novel about Auschwitz could also write and draw for the not-quite-literate set--but rest assured, this comic gem of a picture book demonstrates Spiegelman's ability to conquer his audience, no matter its constituents. Sticking to his well-developed aesthetic, Spiegelman introduces a bunny hero, Jack, who receives a jack-in-the-box. This jack-in-the-box can talk, and its appearance registers somewhere between goofy and clownlike sinister (see its crocodilian upper teeth); its features gain extra oomph by virtue of being the only ones in a spread to receive high-contrast color treatment. With Jack's parents out of the room, the toy performs Cat-in-the-Hat/Marx Brothers-like slapstick tricks timed to perfection. This book choreographs jokes with an exquisite understanding of climax and denouement. As with the other books from this publisher, the design is sophisticated, making elegant use of panels, an easy-to-handle small format and subtle, low-contrast hues. That the vocabulary and the matchup of dialogue balloons to the action are geared to beginning readers is icing on the cake. Ages 4-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Preschool, Primary) In this hybrid of easy reader (repetition of words and phonemes, short sentences, and an emphasis on one-syllable words), comic (storytelling through dialogue and sound effects, emphasis created by typeface, division of the page into panels), and well-made picture book (creamy paper, classy endpapers), Mr. and Mrs. Rabbit give their son Jack a jack-in-the-box. Jack is frightened by the capricious and startling appearances of Zack, the jack-in-the-box clown, but he gains some sense of mastery and safety by calling Zack "silly." However, things get more threatening when Zack escapes from his box, bouncing around on his springy neck, and produces, from the top of his hat, another pop-up creature, Mack. When Mack, in turn, produces a duck with dozens of offspring, domestic chaos results. With Jack, Zack, and Mack, we might suspect that the ducks have wandered in from Boston's Public Garden, but this is no benign world where a plump policeman keeps everyone safe. Instead, after the invasion results in a broken lamp, Jack's world reverts from anarchic reds and yellows to muted blues and greens, and Zack is reboxed, at least for the moment, in a provisional denouement. Easy readers have been the last territory of reliable coziness in children's books, but this is something new: a primer for our age of anxiety. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A long way from Dick and Jane, this near-primer tries hard, and with at least some success, to rob a scary toy of its power to frighten a youngster. Jack the rabbit is thrilled to receive a box covered in stars from his fond parents. His enthusiasm for the gift changes to fright, however, when a green-faced, pop-eyed talking clown head suddenly lunges out at him. Still, in subsequent playful interchanges with it, Jack gradually comes to agree with its claim that it is not a bad toy at all but a silly onebut not before it, Cat in the Hatlike, unleashes both subsidiary toys and terrifying chaos in a sequence color shifts indicate may well be imaginary. Framed in one or two sequential panels per page done in flat colors, simple shapes and with an all-dialogue text in balloons, the episode looks like a comic for brand new readers. There's a lot going on beneath the surface, though, and this may have some therapeutic value for older children too. (Graphic early reader. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Comic visionary and living legend Spiegelman has ignored the effects of Early Success Syndrome and plowed right ahead, finding different methods of bringing sequential art to new audiences in interesting ways. Attempting to match the extraordinary achievement of Maus (1986) would be difficult, to say the least, so he and wife Francoise Mouly have developed the Toon imprint for very young readers. Balancing the aesthetic of comics with the familiarity of picture books, and even harkening back to Dr. Seuss, Spiegelman has produced a polished and fun story following a young bunny's struggle with his new jack-in-the-box, which proves to be hyperactive and rather argumentative. With plenty of word repetition and age-appropriate humor to keep pre- and early readers engaged and curious, Spiegelman has taken sequential-art basics and fitted them to his new audience. Like all the Toon books released so far (Benny and Penny in Just Pretend, Silly Lilly and the Four Seasons, and Otto's Orange Day, all 2008), Jack and the Box is beautifully conceived and executed.--Karp, Jesse Copyright 2008 Booklist