Mighty Jack

By Ben Hatke

Hi! Do you ever wish that something would happen to change your life? Well, in this Graphic Novel, Jack’s family is struggling and he wants to help them out. But he would need a miracle to change their situation.

One summer, Jack’s mom drives him and his sister, Maddie, out to a Flea Market. His mom leaves to go find tools and gives Jack a $5 bill to pay for his and Maddie’s lunch. They observe the different shops, but they can’t pay for anything because they’ve already bought their food. Jack is looking at some books with Maddie and, suddenly, he notices that Maddie’s not with him. She had run away to another tent. Maddie convinces Jack to buy the seeds that the man who ran the tent was selling. The funny thing is – Maddie can’t talk yet. But, she bursts out saying, “Buy the seeds, Jack. Buy all the seeds.”

Since Maddie has spoken, Jack decides to buy the seeds. He doesn’t have enough money, so he gives the man his car keys. (Kids, don’t try this at home!) His mom gets really mad at him when he tells her that he gave her car keys to a stranger in exchange for some seeds. (I mean, why wouldn’t she??) So, Jack’s mom calls the police and they find the car abandoned in a ditch.

The next morning, Maddie wakes up bright and early and starts planting the seeds. The funny thing is that they are magical seeds. They grow really tall overnight and it looks like a magical garden the next morning. There are also these mischievous plants that scoop up mud and throw them at any object nearby! They cover the entire house with mud. Soon, Jack’s mom gets home. Of course, she wasn’t very happy to see her entire house covered in mud. This is strike two for Jack.

He starts walking down the street. While he’s walking, he sees his friend Lily. Lily doesn’t think that Jack trusts her because he won’t tell her about the plants. So, she asks him to close his eyes, then she pushes him in the lake for no reason whatsoever. When Jack emerges, Lily is gone.

Then, finally, Lily finds out about the garden by saving Jack from a plant that was about to eat his leg. The adventure continues as they discover more exciting and exotic plants. Then, something terribly bad happens…

What could it be? Where did these plants come from? Does the location of the plants have something to do with the bad thing that happens? As I always say, read the book to find out!

A few helpful things I like to say about the books I read:

“Run and Get Mom” (how I describe the scariness factor – zero being not scary at all and five being majorly scary): 4  