This book was my nephew's first exposure to Jack and the Beanstalk. Steven Kellogg told the story well! He didn't rush it, but he didn't drag it out, either, and his illustrations were (I thought) kind of neat. I don't imagine that they'd be to everyone's taste, but the kids and I liked them.The kids were rather captivated by this story. It was long. I really didn't think my four year old nephew was going to have the attention span for this book, but he was listening. I was particularly happy when we finished reading and he asked me to define a word he didn't know. "Amy," he asked, "what's an Englishman?" Yea, reading!