Text copyright © 2013 by Veronika Martenova Charles
Illustrations copyright © 2013 by David Parkins
Published in Canada by Tundra Books, a division of Random House of Canada Limited,
One Toronto Street, Suite 300, Toronto, Ontario M5C 2V6
Published in the United States by Tundra Books of Northern New York,
P.O. Box 1030, Plattsburgh, New York 12901
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012945436
All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher – or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency – is an infringement of the copyright law.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Charles, Veronika Martenova
It’s not about the beanstalk! / Veronika Martenova Charles; illustrated by David Parkins.
(Easy-to-read wonder tales)
Short stories based on Jack and the beanstalk tales from around the world.
eISBN: 978-1-77049-332-2
1. Fairy tales. I. Parkins, David II. Title. III. Series: Charles, Veronika Martenova. Easy-to-read wonder tales.
PS8555.H42242I83326 2013 jC813′.54 C2012-905312-0
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and that of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Ontario Book Initiative. We further acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program.
Edited by Stacey Roderick
www.tundrabooks.com
v3.1
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
In the Yard Part 1
The Bean Tree
(Jack and the Beanstalk from Appalachia)
Olaf and the Troll
(Jack and the Beanstalk from Norway)
Molly and the Giant
(Jack and the Beanstalk from Scotland)
In the Yard Part 2
About the Stories
IN THE YARD
PART 1
“Can Jake come out to play?”
Lily and Ben asked Jake’s mother.
“Sure,” she replied.
“He’s in the backyard.”
Jake was throwing a rope
over a tree branch.
“What are you doing?” asked Lily.
“I want to climb up,” said Jake.
“Maybe there’s a giant’s house
where I’ll find a treasure.”
“Oh,” said Ben.
“Like in Jack and the Beanstalk.”
“It wasn’t a beanstalk,” said Jake.
“It was a bean tree!”
“There’s no such thing,” said Lily.
“Sure there is. Listen,” said Jake.
THE BEAN TREE
(Jack and the Beanstalk from Appalachia)
One day, while Jack’s mother
was sweeping up their cottage,
Jack kept getting in her way.
She picked up a bean from the floor
and said, “Jack, go and plant this.”
So Jack ran outside
and planted it under his window.
The next morning, he looked out.
He couldn’t believe his eyes!
The bean had grown into a tree
so tall, Jack couldn’t see its top!
I’ll climb that tree
to see where it goes, he thought.
He climbed up, up, and up
until he reached the top.
There he found a strange,
desert-like land with sand dunes
and cactus plants.
He saw an old woman
walking toward him.
“Hello, Jack,” the woman said.
“I’m your godmother,” she said.
“It was me who made the bean grow.
Did your mother ever tell you
about your father?”
“No,” replied Jack.
“But she always gets sad
when I ask about him.”
“Your father was a good man,”
the woman said.
“He was killed by a giant
who had stolen his treasure.
Only you can get it back.”
“What do I do?” asked Jack.
“Keep on walking,” she replied,
“and you’ll see the giant’s house.
Just remember the word ‘water’!”
So Jack walked until
he came to a big mansion.
It was surrounded
by a wall of cactus plants.
“Stop! What is the password?”
asked the biggest cactus,
as it raised its spiky arms.
Suddenly, Jack remembered.
“Water!” he called out.
“You can pass,” the cactus said
and let him through.
“May I stay the night?” asked Jack.
“You better go back to where
you came from,” the woman said.
“My husband is a giant,
and he eats humans.
But I’ll hide you just for tonight.”
And she hid Jack in the oven.
That night, the giant came home.
“FEE, FI, FO, FUM,” he roared.
“I smell the blood of a human.”
“Oh, dear,” said his wife,
“you’re mistaken. It’s the lamb
I cooked for your dinner.”
After the giant had eaten,
he called, “Bring me my hen!”
His wife placed it on the table.
“Lay!” ordered the giant, and
the hen laid an egg of pure gold.
That must be my father’s treasure!
thought Jack.
After the giant had amused himself,
he fell asleep by the fireside.
Jack crept out of the oven
and picked up the hen.
But just as he did, a little dog
that Jack hadn’t seen before
started to bark.
The giant stirred.
Jack saw a bone on the table
and threw it to the dog.
Then he grabbed the hen and ran.
Soon he felt the ground shaking.
The giant was chasing him!
Jack reached the bean tree.
He jumped on the trunk
and slid down, down, down.
Above him, the giant hollered.
As Jack touched the ground,
he yelled, “Mom! Bring the ax!”
His mother came running
and handed him the ax.
Chop! Chop! Chop!
Jack hit the tree hard.
The tree started to lean.
Then it crashed across the fields.
BOOM!
The giant fell to the ground
and died.
After it was all quiet,
Jack told his mom what happened
and gave her the magic hen.
From then on, Jack and his mother
never had to worry about a thing,
and they lived happily.
“I wonder what happened to
the giant’s wife,” said Lily.
“She was nice to Jack.”
“She must ha
ve felt lonely
when the giant didn’t come back,”
said Jake. “But she didn’t like
that he ate people.”
“I know a story about a boy
who took a treasure from a troll,”
said Ben.
“What’s a troll?” asked Jake.
“It’s a kind of giant,” Ben replied.
“I’ll tell you the story.”
OLAF AND THE TROLL
(Jack and the Beanstalk from Norway)
Once there was a poor man
who had three sons.
When he died,
the two older brothers
decided to leave their home
and look for work.
“Can I come with you?”
asked Olaf, the youngest one.
“No!” his brothers told him.
“You’re fit for nothing.
You could never get a job.”
Then the two set off
and found work
in the palace kitchen.
After a while, Olaf set off, too,
taking his father’s boat,
which his brothers had left behind.
Olaf also arrived at the palace
and asked if they would hire him.
At first, they didn’t want Olaf,
but when he pleaded, they let him
carry the water for the maid.
Olaf was quick and friendly,
and everybody liked him.
His brothers noticed
and grew very jealous of him.
Just opposite the palace,
across another lake,
lived a troll
who had seven silver ducks.
Everybody knew
The brothers told the cook,
“Our brother, Olaf,
said he could catch those ducks.”
It wasn’t long before
the king found out.
The king sent for Olaf.
“I’ve heard that you can get
the silver ducks,” he told him.
“Go now and fetch them!”
Olaf couldn’t argue with the king.
He asked for a bag of seeds
and said he’d try his best.
Olaf loaded the bag into his boat,
and rowed across the lake.
When he reached the other side,
he sprinkled the seeds on the shore.
As the ducks came near,
Olaf caught them
and put them in his boat.
Quickly, he began to row back.
When he was halfway there,
the troll came out and roared,
“Is that you who took my ducks?”
“Yes!” Olaf called back.
“Will you be back?”
“Very likely!” answered Olaf.
Olaf brought the ducks to the king,
and the king was very pleased.
“Well done!” he said.
After that, Olaf was liked
even more than before.
His brothers grew more envious.
Once again, they went to the cook
and said, “Our brother told us
he could get the golden harp
that is heard when the wind blows
across the lake.”
The cook told others,
and soon the king found out.
The king called Olaf and said,
“I hear that you can get
that golden harp. Bring it to me!”
Again Olaf rowed across the lake.
But this time the troll caught him
and took him to his cave.
Olaf saw the golden harp
leaning by the door.
The troll called to his daughter,
“Put this boy in a cage.
Tomorrow you will roast him,
while I invite some friends
to the feast.”
The next day, after the troll left,
the daughter lit the fire
and took out a knife.
“Is that what you’re going to
cut me with?” asked Olaf.
“Yes, it is,” said the daughter.
“But it isn’t sharp,” said Olaf.
“Let me sharpen it for you.
You’ll find it easier to work with.”
The daughter opened the cage.
Olaf came out, pushed her inside,
and locked it.
Then he grabbed the golden harp
and ran to the shore with it.
He jumped into his boat.
Quickly, he rowed across the lake.
Just then, the troll came back
and saw Olaf on the water.
“Hey!” he roared. “Is that you
who took my silver ducks?”
“Yes!” called Olaf.
“And now you have taken my harp?”
“Yes!” replied Olaf.
“Didn’t my daughter roast you?”
the troll screeched.
“I guess not!” called Olaf.
When the troll heard that,
he was so angry, he burst!
Olaf returned to the palace
and gave the king the harp.
The king made him his adviser.
Olaf forgave his two brothers,
and, grateful, their jealousy
changed to admiration.
“That reminds me of a story
about a girl and her sisters,”
said Lily. “She also had to get
something from a giant
and bring it to a king.”
“What was it? Silver ducks?”
asked Ben.
“No,” replied Lily.
“I’ll tell you the story.”
MOLLY AND THE GIANT
(Jack and the Beanstalk from Scotland)
There was once a man
who had many children
but couldn’t feed them all.
One day, he took the three youngest
and left them in the woods.
The children walked and walked
until they came to a house.
The youngest one, named Molly,
knocked on the door.
A woman answered and asked,
“What do you want?”
“Something to eat, please!”
answered Molly.
“Go away,” said the woman.
“My husband is a giant.
If he sees you, he’ll eat you!”
“But we’re so tired,”
said the other two girls.
So the woman let them in and
gave them each a piece of bread.
They had just taken a bite
when the giant came home.
“Oh! What have we here?”
the giant asked.
“Three lost and tired girls,”
said his wife.
“I made you a big supper,
so leave the girls to me.
They will sleep here tonight.”
Now, the giant had three daughters
of his own, and his wife put
all six girls into the same bed.
The giant went to say good night.
Pretending to play,
he hung gold necklaces
around his daughters’ necks.
Then he put straw ropes
around the necks
of Molly and her sisters.
How strange, thought Molly.
When everyone was asleep,
Molly crept across the bed
and switched the necklaces.
Now she and her sisters wore
the gold ones, and the giant’s
daughters wore the straw ropes.
In the middle of the night,
the giant came into the room
and felt the girls’ necks.
He plucked o
ut the girls with
the straw ropes and
carried them down to the cellar.
“I’ll have them for breakfast,”
he said to himself.
As soon as it was quiet again,
Molly woke up her sisters.
“We must get out of here,”
she whispered. “Right now!”
The girls slipped out of the house
and stumbled through the darkness.
At sunrise, they came to a canyon.
Far below, a river ran wildly.
There was a long strand of hair
spanning it like a bridge.
“We have to cross,”
said Molly to her sisters.
“But how can we?” they asked.
“Let me try first,” said Molly.
She climbed up,
balanced herself, and walked.
“We can do it! The hair is magic!”
Molly shouted to her sisters.
She helped each of them across.
On the other side of the canyon
stood a big castle
that belonged to a king.
Molly went in
and told the king her story.
“You’re very brave,” the king said.
“That giant stole my father’s sword.
If you bring it back to me,
I’ll reward you with a house
and all the food you want.”
“I’ll try,” said Molly.
She returned to the giant’s house,
and at night she sneaked inside.
The sword hung by the giant’s bed.
Slowly, Molly took it off.
CLANG! The sword fell down.
“Now I’ve got you!” the giant roared.
“Tell me, girl, if I were you,
how would you punish me?”
“I would put you in a sack and
hang you on the wall,” said Molly.
“Then I’d cut a stick in the woods,
come back, and beat you to a jelly.”
“Well,” laughed the giant,
“that’s exactly what I’ll do to you.”
He put Molly into a sack
and went out to find a stick.
Molly started singing,
If you could see what I see!