“In this wordless retelling of “Jack and the Beanstalk,” a young girl meets a giant—and discovers the giant within herself. When a towering beanstalk sprouts overnight in Olive’s yard, she climbs into the world of a giant; together, they dance the day away high above the ground. Upon her return, however, she realizes that “giant” is all a matter of perspective. Dramatic illustrations use sharp black lines and gentle shading; in a playful nod to the titular character, olive is the only color.”
——Foreword Reviews

“A climb up an unusually tall tree rewards an intrepid child with exhilarating adventures and readers with some large (and small) insights.
As he’s done before in Red (2018) and Gold (2022), Alexander adds single-color highlights (here a light, translucent green) to finely detailed line drawings for a wordless rendition of a familiar folktale kitted with expectation-confounding twists. An East Asian–presenting child clambers up a humongous olive tree that has grown up overnight and gets a friendly reception at the top by a giant—also East Asian—who offers an olive the size of a basketball as a snack, then sets the tiny visitor on one shoulder and proceeds to dance and spin balletically on the clouds. Following a short nap beneath a big leaf, the little child climbs back down to the ground and abruptly becomes the giant by bending down to offer a ride to a tiny mouse. All the dancing, plus spread layouts that switch from horizontal to vertical and back, give a playful lilt to these sudden, dramatic changes of scale and perspective. Along with giving budding critical skills a workout by inviting comparisons with the original, this inspired take on “Jack and the Beanstalk” is sure to plant seeds of thought about how “big” and “little” are relative notions. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A heady spin, rich in thought-provoking themes and fee-fi-fo-fun tweaks. (Picture book. 5-8)”
——Kirkus Reviews

★Recommended by The New York Times, Forword Reviews, Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal and so on!
★Several illustrations from the title Olive were official juried selections in the 2023 Society of Illustrator's Annual. An image from the tittle Olive also appeared in The Society of Illustrators Original Art Show.Illustrations from Olive will also appear as runners up in Creative Quarterly 77.
★The title Gold garnered a Kirkus Star, with several of its illustrations included as official jury selections in the 2022 Society of Illustrator's Annual and Communication Arts Annual.
★The title Gold was also included in The Society of Illustrators Original Art Show. Was chosen as a White Raven book, one of 200 selections made by by The International Youth Library. Official selection for the 61st annual Bologna Children's Book Fair exhibition.
★Jed Alexander retells classic tales with simple yet elegant illustrations, offering young readers a delightful twist on the familiar endings!
★Each book features a distinct color theme tied to the story, while the rest of the illustrations are outlined in black and white.

The series includes 2 titles: Gold, Olive

Who is the real giant in this wordless story inspired by Jack and the Beanstalk?
Your point of view matters in this page-turning journey into what it means to be small and big. The reader holding the book may turn out to be the biggest giant of all! The critically-acclaimed author-illustrator of Gold is back again with another charmer, one sure to be savored again and again as each reader tells their own story inspired by the pictures.

Jed Alexander
An author and illustrator who lives in Davis California with his wife Regina, his best friend and favorite person in the world. His work has appeared in publications like Cricket magazine and SpongeBob Comics.
In 2013, through a successful Kickstarter campaign, he was able to fund the publication of his first picture book, (Mostly) Wordless.
Red, also wordless, came out to critical acclaim in 2018. His follow up book, Gold, was published in 2022 and was also well-received. Images form Gold were official jury selections for The Society of Illustrators and Communication Arts annuals. The third book in the series, Olive, was also featured in both The Society of Illustrators Annual and Original Art Show, and was featured as a runner up in Creative Quarterly77.
His clients have included SpongeBob Comics, Cricket Magazine, and The Children's Book Council.
He enjoyed teaching art classes for children at The Pence Gallery and Davis Arts Center and have taught an online course on crowdfunding for adults at The Children's Book Academy.