The Golden Apples

by Dan Yashinsky, Ekaterina Khlebnikova (Illustrator)

Overview

★ "Despite being better at following recipes than advice, a savvy third son prospers in this retold folktale...Brisk, engaging fun." — Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Jack may be good at following recipes, but he’s not very good at following directions When his two older brothers fail to find the golden bird that made off with their father’s prized golden apples, Jack steps up for the job. But there are many challenges to be faced along the way; without the help of a fast and friendly fox, Jack just might not make it. With a smart princess who loves grunge rock, angry kings, magic animals, conniving siblings, and tempting casinos, this delightful re-mix of an old Cape Breton Jack tale seamlessly blends modern and ancient.

Acclaimed Canadian storyteller Dan Yashinsky brings wit and whimsy to this wonder tale. Ekaterina Khlebnikova’s brilliant illustrations blend old and new creating a gorgeous visual world; a perfect complement to Yashinsky’s re-telling. Together they serve up a book that will delight readers and listeners of all ages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781998802050
Publisher:	Running the Goat
Publication date:	10/03/2023
Pages:	60
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.25(d)
Age Range:	6 - 8 Years

About the Author

Dan Yashinsky has been telling stories for more than forty years. The founder of the Toronto Storytelling Festival and the co-founder of Storytelling Toronto, he has shared his stories across the world—at festivals, in schools and hospitals, in theatres and community spaces. His work in schools includes creating the Telling Bee, a story-based curriculum project that has taken place in more than forty Ontario schools. He is the editor of four acclaimed folk tale collections, and the author of several books including Tales for an Unknown City, which received the Toronto Book Award, and Suddenly They Heard Footsteps: Storytelling for the Twenty-first Century. He lives in Toronto.

Raised in a family of book lovers, Ekaterina Khlebnikova dreamt of being an illustrator or artist from a very young age. A graduate of the Moscow State University Ivan Fedorov, Faculty of Graphic Arts, she is a member of the Moscow Union of Artists (Department of Prints). She has participated in numerous exhibitions, both in Russia and elsewhere, and is a winner at Moscow’s International Festival of Book Illustration and Visual Literature (MORS). She has created artwork for books published in Russia, China, Serbia, and now Canada.

Editorial Reviews

★ "Despite being better at following recipes than advice, a savvy third son prospers in this retold folktale...Brisk, engaging fun."

starred review Kirkus Reviews

★ 2023-09-09
Despite being better at following recipes than advice, a savvy third son prospers in this retold folktale.

Based on a version from a Cape Breton storyteller, this tale puts a Canadian slant (“As the King of Hockeyland once said, ‘You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take’ ”) to elements both modern and drawn from multiple traditions. Jack enjoys baking with his mom, the queen, but bravely leaves the kitchen to track down the golden bird who’s stealing golden apples from the royal garden. Repeatedly accepting a talking fox’s advice and then forgetting it in the clutch, he escapes bad ends by taking on a string of daunting tasks. But he does stay focused long enough to land a job as palace cook in the next kingdom over, get help from a princess with “the kindest eyes in the world,” and return home with her. The author doesn’t exactly follow his own dictum about not making folktales “too nicey-nicey” when he has Jack rescue his older brothers from a crowd “about to drive them out of town” (the illustration has them placed on a gallows). Still, along with dressing Jack’s crowned father in shorts and a T-shirt, plastering the princess’s bedroom wall with rock band posters, and tucking in other amusing details, Khlebnikova ably captures the story’s fluid pacing and dramatic tension. Characters, even the same ones from page to page, vary in skin tones.

Brisk, engaging fun. (afterword) (Picture book. 7-9)

Kirkus Reviews