Jeanne Steig

A Handful of Beans is a delightful collection of six classic fairy tales adapted: Rumpelstiltskin, Beauty and the Beast, Hansel and Gretel, The Frog Prince, Jack and the Beanstalk

Each fairy tale has a quirky twist and just a little bit different than when I first learned the stories. But I was smiling as I was reading each tale and said the added rhymes out loud to myself. Each tale ends with a question, much like "what's the moral of the story?" It left me wondering and thinking.

This book has a lot more text than pictures. It's more suitable for older students who are familiar with the stories. There's also more vivid violence in this adaptation than you would find in most younger students' versions of these tales. (Rumpelstiltskin tears himself in two, the Beast talks of murder, Gretel pushing the witch in the oven is illustrated and also elaborated in gruesome words, Wolf is filled with rocks and dies)

The illustrations are simple that accompany the tales but with enough detail to make them fun. The illustrations are done by the author's late husband, William Steig. He is the Caldecott Award winner of Sylvester and the Magic Pebble.(1977) Interesting fact: he wrote the original book Shrek, which led to the Dreamworks film. What talent!

A Handful of Beans will be a great addition to my library collection. I can't wait to read it aloud with my older students!… (more)