Fearless Jack

Fearless Jack

By Paul Brett Johnson

Grade 3

FOLK TALE (Folk Literature)

This book is such a cute book. This book is a retold Appalachian folk tale. The main character Jack was sent by his mother to find a job to help take care of them. Along the way some yellow jackets got in his way and he got angry and took off his hat and gave the yellow jackets a smack and he killed ten yellow jackets at one time. He was pretty happy with himself and wrote on the bill of his cap Fearless Jack Killed Ten at a Whack. Jack continued down the road to town to find a job. When he was in town he came in contact with a sheriff after he was knocked to the ground after something came whirling through the town. He introduced himself to the sheriff and the sheriff noticed Jack's hat but even questioned that Jack killed anything. The sheriff then told him he was in the right place because they had some wild varmints there killing livestock and thrashing crops. People were even scared to go outdoors. The sheriff told him that there would be a reward of 100 dollars for the capture of these varmints. A varmint was the culprit of what caused Jack to jump out of the way when he came into town. The first varmint he came in contact with was a wild boar and the boar ended up chasing him and he was able to "accidentally" trap him in a corn crib. He then went back to the sheriff and played up the capture and received a hundred dollars from the sheriff. Jack was going to go home but then the sheriff offered another 100 dollars if he could capture the wild grizzly bear. He then had an encounter with the bear and "accidentally" captured it and played it up and received another 100 dollars. Then the final varmint was the unicorn and he had another "accidental" encounter and in the end the unicorn was scared off to never come back. Then the sheriff paid him and he took 1000 dollars home. In the end he was accidentally rich and was a hero in town!