Kate and the Beanstalk

Osborne, M. (2000). Kate and the Beanstalk. Illus. Giselle Potter. New York, New York: Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing Division.

Brief Annotation: Kate and her mother were poor and when Kate sold their cow, which was their only chance of survival, for magic beans Kate’s mom was angry. However, the magic beans created a giant beanstalk that grew all the way up to the clouds. When she climbs the beanstalk and reaches the top she meets a woman who leads her to the castle where Kate is to find three treasures (a hen that lays golden eggs, a bag filled with coins, and a harp) to help a poor mother and daughter (Kate did not realize that the poor mother and daughter is actually Kate and her mother). Inside the castle lives a giant, who Kate has to take the treasures from, and when Kate tries to take the third treasure, he sees her and chases her all the way down the beanstalk. The giant turned out to be the giant that killed Kate’s father and who lives in Kate’s father castle, which becomes Kate and her mother’s again as Kate defeated the giant.

Genre: Folktale Comparison

Grade Level: K-2

Readers who will like this: Readers who like fairytales and like to use their imagination.

Response/Rating (1-4): *** When I first picked this book, I wasn’t sure how different it would be from Jack and the Beanstalk and it turned out to not be very different except the main character is a girl. I enjoyed the illustrations as they were simple yet fun and depicted the story very well. I enjoyed this story because it’s a story about courage, faith, and hope in that people can do good for others in return for nothing. The reward is great because the act is selfless.

One question you would ask before a read aloud: If you came across magic beans, what do you wish they could do?

Reading Strategies Connection: Word Sorts- In this activity, students categorize words from the book based on their meanings, similarities, graphophonemic clues, or spelling patterns. Teachers can categorize words based on developmental goals, such as: rhyming words, consonant sounds (begins with..), sound-symbols, spelling patters, number of syllables, root words and affixes, and conceptual relationships, such as words relating to characters or a big idea in a unit.

I like this activity because students will learn important phonics, spelling, and vocabulary concepts. This activity is relevant to what students are learning and will help make learning specific literacy concepts meaningful and fun.