A Home in the Sky

This Twicetold Tales retelling drops Jack and his beanstalk into a modern city block, trading a farmyard for apartment buildings and a giant's castle for a neighbor named Mr. Briareus. The manga-influenced black-and-white art with red accents gives the familiar story a fresh visual energy, and the short chapter format makes it genuinely approachable for reluctant readers who already know the source tale. Built-in writing prompts are a smart bonus, nudging kids to try their own retellings. The honest caveat: formal critical coverage is almost nonexistent, so quality is harder to gauge than with widely reviewed titles, and stronger readers may blow through it in one sitting. That said, as a bridge book linking classic folklore to contemporary settings, it does its job cleanly and with some visual flair. Worth picking up for an emerging middle-grade reader.