Paco y la planta de chile gigante. (Paco and the Giant Chile Plant)

Reviewed by Ann Welton, Grant Center for the Expressive Arts, Tacoma, WA -- Críticas, 9/1/2008

Polette, Keith. 
tr. by Eída de la Vega. illus by Elizabeth O. Dulemba. U.S.: Raven Tree Press: Delta Publishing. 2008. 32p. ISBN 978-1-932748-97-0. pap. $7.95.

Pre-S-Gr 2–Set in the Southwest of the United States, this retelling of “Jack and the Beanstalk” takes some unusual liberties with the story. As in the traditional tale, Paco trades the family cow for some magic (in this case, chile) seeds. Rather than returning home to an angry mother, Paco simply sits down and plants the seeds. Once the plant sprouts, Paco climbs to the top, and heads for the giant’s house with a few chiles on hand. There, he saves himself from being eaten by offering them to the giant. The giant squirts himself in the eyes with the chile juice and begins to cry. The tears convert him into Paco’s missing father, who returns home to comfort his wife and child with empty platitudes about the importance of family, negating the fact that they are starving. The cartoon illustrations are a trifle stereotyped, but make excellent use of deep yellows and reds as a base palette for the desert setting. The Spanish text scans well, and the use of capitals for emphasis yields an oral reading that will surely appeal to young children. However, much of the tension of the original is lost with the excision of Jack’s (or Paco’s, in this case) altercation with his mother and the too-ready resolution of the threat posed by the giant. The thought of a father on the point of consuming his son is a bit disquieting as well, particularly for this age group. Francesc Bofill’s stylish version Juan y los frijoles mágicos (Chronicle, 1998) remains the Spanish language version of choice.

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