Mighty Jack and the Goblin King by Ben Hatke

It’s the best mistake Jack has ever made.

But then, one day at the flea market, Maddy does talk―to tell Jack to trade their mom’s car for a box of mysterious seeds. It’s a lot of responsibility, and it’s boring, too, because Maddy doesn’t talk. But he’s got a good reason: summer is when his single mom takes a second job and leaves him at home to watch his autistic kid sister, Maddy. Jack might be the only kid in the world who’s dreading summer. But it doesn’t follow the typical story line so you can’t easily predict what will happen next.įirst, let’s check in with the publisher’s summary: Mighty Jack is a loose retelling of the Jack in the Beanstock story, and it’s a great retelling. I decided that Mighty Jack would be the first graphic novel I would read.

I had amazing conversations about graphic novels and asked professors who were leading the sessions to suggest some graphic novels for me to read. They told I should check out First Second, and I am glad that I did. I’ll admit it: I had never read a graphic novel at this point.

I decided to seek out and learn more about implementing graphic novels in my classroom while at the conference. The opinions are my own.I recently attended the 2016 Literacy Research Association conference that was held in Nashville, TN. Read my review of Mighty Jack and Zita the Spacegirl here.Ī copy of this book was provided by Raincoast Books for an honest review. I liked the story, I am a fantasy fan, and am looking forward to more in this series, loved the characters, particularly Lily, who is strong, brave, loyal and kind, and absolutely loved the illustrations. The first graphic novel is simply called Mighty Jack and it might of explained how Maddie, Jack’s sister, ended up being stolen by an ogre from another realm and how Jack knew Phelix (I love this dragon).ĭespite the frustration I felt in missing information in this fantasy graphic novel, I still liked the book and still feel I can say I love everything I have read by Hatke (Little Robot and Nobody Likes a Goblin are the other two I have re-read over and over). I was, although I didn’t actually figure that out until I looked it up just now. I kept stopping to re-read the front flap, wondering if somehow I missed some key piece of information or if perhaps I was reading a sequel. As I read Might Jack and the Goblin King graphic novel by Ben Hatke ($20.99, Raincoast Books, First Second), I felt as though I was missing something.

Mighty Jack and the Goblin King by Ben Hatke