by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale/Illustrated by Nathan Hale
ages: 9+
First sentence: “I think of myself as a criminal mastermind… with an unfortunate amount of bad luck.”
Review copy provided by the publisher.
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Release date: January 5, 2010

Remember Jack from Rapunzel’s Revenge? No? That’s okay, because this is his story.

It seems that Jack has always had a knack for scheming. From the get-go, he’s been trying to find ways to swindle people. Sometimes, they deserve it, sometimes they don’t. Then… he decides to take on Blunderboar, the biggest (literally: he’s a giant), meanest guy in Shyport. Jack breaks into the tower (with the help of some magic beans), makes off with Blunderboar’s magic goose, and manages to accidentally kill a giant while chopping the beanstalk down. (Does all of this sound familiar? It should.)

Insert brief interlude, while Jack goes out west, meets Rapunzel and has adventures.

Then, Jack brings Rapunzel back to the city, where things have changed. Blunderboar has gotten more powerful, literally razing parts of the city as well as taking Jack’s mother into captivity. Along with a couple of new sidekicks, it’s up to Jack and Rapunzel to save the city.

I liked this graphic novel well enough — it’s the Hales, after all. But I really wanted to love it as much as I loved Rapunzel’s Revenge, and honestly, well, it’s not as good as that one. It wasn’t as funny — or, at the very least, the funny fell flat in my opinion. There was a wee bit of a love triangle, which also did nothing for me. And, while I thought it was a clever spin on the Jack and the Beanstalk fairy tale and I liked the action and mystery in the plot, there just wasn’t enough… oomph, I suppose, is the word I’m looking for.

But oomph or not, it’s a decent sequel to Rapunzel’s Revenge. And I can’t argue with that.