Jack and the Green Man (A Jack Tale, 5)

Jack o' Hearts is the top card player in the parish, and is feeling pretty sure of himself. When a mysterious green stranger challenges him to a card game with higher than high stakes - well, Jack can't resist. Sure, he's never lost a tournament yet, has he? Jack is as saucy as saucy can be, and he's twice as lucky as that - but the game is trickier than it looks. Luckily, Jack finds he's got an ace up his sleeve: the menacing green man's beautiful daughter Ann. She's got as much magic as her father (or so that enchantment crowd says), and she likes the look of Jack. This hilarious re-imagining of a traditional Newfoundland folktale is jam-packed with magic, romance, transformations, impossible tasks, unforgettable characters, a country song or two, and the ever-present threat of Jack's head ending up on a spear. A brilliant blending of folklore, high literature, and pop culture, Jack and the Green Man is Andy Jones and Darka Erdelji's most ambitious and most riotous Jack tale yet. Divided into 12 short chapters, this long-form, gorgeously illustrated storybook will delight readers and listeners of all ages. Previous books in this Jack tale series have won the BMO Winterset Award and the Bruneau Family Award for Children's/Young Adult Writing, and have been shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award for Illustrated Children's Book, the Silver Birch Express Award, the Ann Connor Brimer Award, and the Newfoundland and Labrador History and Heritage Award.