Jack and the Three Sillies
Subtitle: Told by Richard Chase
Contributors: Pictures by Joshua Tolford
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin (Juv)
Published: 1950
Place of publication: Boston
Language: eng
Format: School & Library Binding
Number of pages: 41
ISBN-13: 9780395191002
Subjects: Jack tale, foolish behavior
Genres: folktale
First sentence: Jack?—Why he was a boy lived back in old times.  I reckon he lived somewhere here in the mountains. There’s a lot of tales on Jack...
Description: The narrator says he's only heard one tale about Jack marrying. Jack's wife learns that others are more foolish than he is after he brings home a rock he acquires in a series of foolish trades. Like the young bridegroom in European variants, the wife returns to Jack after traveling to find other sillies; she finds people (both men and women) trying to get the moon's reflection out of a pool, trying to pull a plow themselves instead of using their mule, and trying to get a man's head through a shirt without cutting a neck hole in it. The wife gets money from each of the people she helps. The well-designed illustration repeated at the beginning and end sums up the whole story. Color and black-and-white drawings alternate throughout the book. Description by Tina L. Hanlon, Ferrum College. See http://www.ferrum.edu/applit/bibs/tales/sillies.htm.
Notes: The book contains no notes but a short introduction to the tradition of stories about Jack. The front jacket flap emphasizes the hilarity of the folktale and illustrations. There is an emphasis on the oral tradition as the story's source, with “Told by Richard Chase” on the title page. The narrator says, “Jack?—Why he was a boy lived back in old times.  I reckon he lived somewhere here in the mountains. There’s a lot of tales on Jack.” He ends with “And the last time I was down there they were both of 'em gettin' on well.” See AppLit page on this book and other variants at http://www.ferrum.edu/applit/bibs/tales/sillies.htm and bibliography of Richard Chase at http://www.ferrum.edu/applit/bibs/chasebib.htm.