Destitute orphan, Nick, knows the Jack and the Beanstalk legend. While infiltrating a fortress for a band of thieves, Nick sees evidence of Jack’s adventures, including the magic beans. Nick steals the beans to gain his own fortune. The beans sprout into the sky latching onto a cloud island where three giants live: Gullinda, the giantess who protected Jack, and Gnasher and Basher, her two evil sons. Gnasher and Basher have imprisoned Gullinda forcing her to weave beanstalk ropes for the brothers’ future invasion of Earth. Nick meets the captive Gullinda while searching for gold, but his sympathy drives him to free her. Once she escapes, Finch—the leader of the thieves—arrives to force Nick into stealing the giants’ wealth.
In Catanese’s re-released 2006 series, he uses Jack and the
Beanstalk as the foundation for this first book. The original fairytale does
not show any consequences for Jack’s illegal actions. Readers excuse Jack for stealing
gold, betraying the giant’s wife, and killing the giant because Jack was saving
his family. In Catanese’s novel, an older Jack admits greed fueled his behavior,
not providing for his family. Jack relies on Nick to resolve the whole “giant”
mess because the consequences of Jack’s past decisions are too huge for him to
resolve alone. Besides the underlying atonement theme, The Thief and the Beanstalk is also a suspenseful, action-packed
adventure appropriate for ages 13 and up.
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