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THE GOLDEN APPLES by Dan Yashinsky Kirkus Star

THE GOLDEN APPLES

by Dan Yashinsky ; illustrated by Ekaterina Khlebnikova

Pub Date: Oct. 3rd, 2023
ISBN: 9781998802050
Publisher: Running the Goat

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)