Video of the Week: This Is the House That Jack Built
RSSFrom SLJ November 2004
Teresa Bateman, Brigadoon Elementary School, Federal Way, WA -- School Library Journal, 11/08/2004
videocassette. color. 7 min. (closed captioned). with tchr’s. guide. Weston Woods. 2004. ISBN 0-78820-318-5. $60; also avail. cassette with hardcover book, ISBN 0-78820-515-4: $24.95; CD with hardcover book, ISBN 0-78820-343-6: $29.95.
PreS-Gr 2–Simms Taback’s delightful, bright, and bouncy mixed-media illustrations and lettering have a fine time accompanying this traditional verse (Putnam, 2002). Readers follow the illustrations from the house to the rat to the cheese to the…illustrator? Ah, a surprise at the end! There is much here to enchant and engage the eye. The video features Mandy Patinkin reading the text (not just the rhyme but also the odd boxes and additions tossed into the illustrations) with energy and emotion. Animation makes Taback’s illustrations come alive and adds much to the story. The rat’s ghost is particularly fun. Lively original background music, with a Jewish flavor, perfectly matches the feel of the book. The video would lead naturally into a discussion of the Caldecott Award as viewers are shown an illustration from Caldecott’s version of The House That Jack Built, as well as a picture of Randolph Caldecott. The CD/cassette is also narrated by Patinkin, but follows the text more directly without any side journeys into the illustrations. This is a classic treatment of a terrific book and merits a place in all libraries serving children.
