In his playful second book for children, poet Gary Barwin riffs on the traditional tale of Jack and the Beanstalk. Here, a nose and his parents (two old eyes) are desperately poor, and a pair of glasses is the only thing of value they have. On his way to market to trade the glasses for food, the nose meets an old ear and her husband who offer to trade the glasses for a magic mustache. In typical “Jack” style, the eyes are angry when they learn about the trade, and throw the mustache outside, where it grows into a sky-high beard, opening up a world of gigantic riches and potential danger (in the form of a nose-eating mouth).

This is an odd cast of characters indeed, yet Barwin anchors a potentially silly story with rhythmic language and wordplay. After cutting down the beard for the second time, the nose comments, “You’ve got your work cut out for you,” to which the beard replies, “Here we grow again.”

Stéphane Jorisch’s illustrations are key in adding to this surreal cast of characters. Indeed, Jorisch (a 1998 Governor General’s Award nominee for The Village of a Hundred Smiles) calls to mind the work of artists such as René Magritte and Salvador Dali, who alter the scale of familiar objects and place them in unexpected settings. In this case, the objects the nose steals (the golden toothbrush, the magic straw, and the magic harmonica) are so real (they appear to be photos) that their importance in the story is heightened.

Barwin and Jorisch have updated a classic children’s story in a way that is fresh, original, and thoroughly modern. It’s a real (or is that surreal?) treat to read.