Things Are Looking Up, Jack

Elizabeth Levin is chair of the Psychology Department at Laurentian
University.

Have you ever noticed how many nursery-rhyme characters are named Jack?
There’s Jack and Jill, Jack Sprat, Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack Be
Nimble, Little Jack Horner, and the list goes on. Furthermore, have you
ever noticed how many nursery rhymes have plots in which characters or
objects fall down? Consider, for example, London Bridge, Humpty Dumpty,
the sky in Chicken Little, and the cradle that was hanging on the bough
that broke.

In Things Are Looking Up, Jack, Dan Bar-el not only explains all the
falling down, he also puts an end to it once and for all. The amusing,
fast-paced story, which is set in the land of Mother Goose, has Little
Bo Peep helping Jack and Jill capture Evil Jack, who has been causing a
lot of mischief. Understanding the story and appreciating its humour,
however, depend on the reader’s knowledge of classical nursery rhymes.
For young readers who are not familiar with them, many of the puns and
allusions will fall flat. For example, Humpty Dumpty collapses in his
own yolk and then says, “I seem to have egg all over my face.”
Nonetheless, the story is suitable both for independent reading and as
an entertaining read-aloud. Recommended with one reservation.