Author Description

The narrator says he's only heard one tale about Jack marrying. Jack's wife learns that others are more foolish than he is after he brings home a rock he acquires in a series of foolish trades. Like the young bridegroom in European variants, the wife returns to Jack after traveling to find other sillies; she finds people (both men and women) trying to get the moon's reflection out of a pool, trying to pull a plow themselves instead of using their mule, and trying to get a man's head through a shirt without cutting a neck hole in it. The wife gets money from each of the people she helps. The well-designed illustration repeated at the beginning and end sums up the whole story. Color and black-and-white drawings alternate throughout the book. Description by Tina L. Hanlon, Ferrum College. See http://www.ferrum.edu/applit/bibs/tales/sillies.htm.