Jack and the Seven Deadly Giants — Sam Swope

A reinvention of a favorite folktale hero

Ever since he was abandoned on a miller's doorstep as a noisy infant, Jack's been saddled with the reputation of village bad boy. When real trouble arrives -- in the form of seven deadly giants roaming the countryside - Jack is blamed. "Bad attracts bad," the village preacher warns his frightened flock. Jack believes it, too. Worried that the village won't be safe unless he leaves, Jack sets off, never intending to battle the giants, but one by one, that's what happens. And in his surprising encounters with these seven truly bad seeds, Jack proves himself braver, smarter, and better than he ever suspected.

The author has found exactly the right youngster to defeat these overgrown manifestations of the seven traditional human failings (including Sloth, the would-be poet; the ever-incensed Mrs. Roth; and Avaritch, the greedy troglodyte), all of whom come roaring to life in striking pictures by Belgian Carll Cneut.