The World That Jack Built - Ruth Brown

Author's product rating:   

Would you read it again?
Story
Characters
Readability

Advantages:	Beautifully drawn pictures that get the message across
Disadvantages:	It's all too true

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

My daughter borrowed this book from the local library on one of our many visits and as you may well guess from the title of the book it is based on the rhyme 'The House That Jack Built'.

It is a picture book which tells the story of the destruction of the environment and although aimed at young children it is quite hard hitting.

The cover of the book is a beautifully drawn picture of a peaceful countryside scene. An elegant black cat sits at the top of a hill where wild flowers are growing and a blue butterfly flies nearby.

The book starts with the house that Jack built and shows the cat sitting on a perfectly manicured lawn in front of a small well kept cottage, the sun is shining and all is well in the world.

The cat obviously lives a carefree life as we see how it plays with the butterfly, even chasing it up a tree, oh what a happy contented life.

As the book progresses we follow the cats journey as it happily chases after the butterfly. The cat follows it to a flowing stream where a tree hangs lazily over the gently running water, then through a meadow that is filled with tall grass and wild flowers, the type of meadow that we'd all love to run through, oh to be that cat with nothing to worry about but the game of chase.

On and on the chase goes into the woods. Further and further they go up into the hills where we see the butterfly perched on a fence just out of the cats reach.

Isn't this a perfect life, a perfect world, beauty all around. Two innocent animals playing in the sun without a single fear. Of course it won't last, it never does but then that's the whole idea of this book, to show us the peaceful tranquility of the world, the gentleness and beauty of nature until man comes into the picture.

This is where the whole mood of the story changes. As the pictures start to become darker and more menacing, we see the cat sitting at the top of the hill looking down at the smog covered valley below, the butterfly now at its side.

Together they go through more woods that cover the hills, but these aren't the same as the other woods. The trees here are black and charred, the sky dark and grey and the ground is dead and dry.

The meadows are filled with dead and decaying plants, the ground is dry and cracked yet on they go to another stream. This time the cat peers into the water which is full of chemicals, the trees along the river are all dead. Nothing beautiful to see here, just the stench of death and destruction, no flowers growing by the river bank, no life. Oh dear Man, what have you done?

Finally the friends reach their journeys end, a place where trees used to grow but now all that's left is a large dirty pipe, belching out chemicals into the stream and where do these chemicals come from? The factory that Jack built of course.

A world away from the scenic house we saw at the beginning of the book, Jack wouldn't live here, why should he, he lives in a beatiful house where his pollution hasn't reached...yet.

The last page in the book shows the cat as it runs past the huge factory, the butterfly follows close behind. The picture shows the factory with great clouds of smoke coming out of it's chimneys. It's dark, it's dirty and yes it's scary.

This is a wonderful book to help teach children about the environment and show what we are doing to it. You can feel the mood of the book change from carefree as two animals play in the sunshine to more sinister as the world around them changes.

The pictures are so well drawn by Ruth Brown that I swear you can see the fear in the cats face as the pictures become darker.

The book itself was published by Andersen Press of London in 1990 and is printed on acid-free paper (that's what it says inside the front cover).

All in all an excellent book and by using the method of rhyme to tell the story and animals to show it. I think it holds a childs attention.

More importantly it shows how bit by bit we are destroying the beauty of the world around us. Read it with your children, discuss it with them, think about it and promise yourself that you or I will never ever make the world that Jack built!

The ISBN NO is: 0-86264-269-8

Priced at £7.99.