Kate and the Bean Stalk

Imagine you’re at the market and a random person comes up to you and says “Hey, I will trade you these magical beans for one of your most prized possessions.” Welcome to Kate’s world. The book I am referring to is Kate and the Bean Stalk by Mary Pope Osborne.  As Kate is not the wealthiest kid on the block, one day her mother asks her to go to the market to sell a cow for some food. On her way she meets a guy who offers “magic beans” for her cow. Kate accepts, but it makes her mother furious and she throws the beans out the window. Later that night Kate goes outside to find the beans, but instead finds a surprise. She sees a HUGE bean stalk that goes for miles. In her state of curiosity she begins to climb the bean stalk. She stops when she sees a castle. An old lady greets her and begins to tell her the story about a family whose father was killed by a giant. The mother and her child were so scared that they moved and were poor. The old lady tells Kate that the king had some prized possessions. She tells Kate that if she can find those possessions the family would no longer be poor. Kate heads to the castle to begin her quest when she runs into a giantess who is looking for a servant. Kate became that servant and each time she served breakfast she noticed the giant had one of the king’s prized possessions which she would steal. Kate took all three prized possessions and the giant chased after her.  She ran down the bean stalk, cut it down and the giant fell to his death. The fairies came and told the old lady that Kate and her mother are the king’s family and they lived happily ever after.

                This is a good example of traditional literature to have in the classroom because it incorporates different elements of traditional literature.  This story incorporates motifs such as magic, journeys and quest, trickery, and respective phrases.  The story incorporates magic because Kate receives magic beans. Those magic beans lead to a magical kingdom with giants and fairies. As the story goes on Kate goes on a journey to find all the king’s possessions so that the king’s family will not be poor. The giantess uses trickery to keep Kate as a servant so the giant will not eat her. The giantess would make Kate hide whenever the giant would eat his food. Kate would also use trickery when she would take the king’s prized possessions. The Giant used  a repetitive phrase whenever he ate. The giant would say “FEE, FI, FO, FUM” every time the giantess would give him breakfast. The setting also contains elements of traditional literature. The book starts out, “Long ago, a girl named Kate  lived with her mother in a in a humble cottage”. The plot is also predictable. Every time the giant would eat his breakfast, Kate would steal one of the king’s possessions.  In our opinion this would be ideal for the third to fourth grade, because the language and plot is easy for the students to understand.