The Jack in Dan Bar-el's Things Are Looking Up, Jack (Orca $7.95) is none other than King Jack, the egalitarian son of Mrs. Goose who insists on fetching his own pail of water. Unfortunately, as his bossy sister Princess Jill is quick to point out, Jack is a klutz. But it's not only Jack and Jill who go a-tumbling. Humpty Dumpty takes a spill, too. A baby's cradle leaves the bough. The sky is falling and so, for that matter, is London bridge. The cow can't quite clear the moon. Clearly something's amiss in the kingdom. It's up to klutzy Jack, his domineering sister and the fetching Miss Bo Peep to put things right and solve the mystery of why everything is falling down in the land of nursery rhymes. Dan Bar-el is a Vancouver preschool teacher who once met a grizzly in Jasper National Park and saved his bacon with a little harmonica playing. Sounds like the makings for a King Jack sequel. 1-55143-278-1
[BCBW Summer 2004]