Read EllRay Jakes and the Beanstalk for Free Online Page B

carried home a chicken, and his mom was happy again. In fact, they ate the chicken and then lived happily ever after, and nobody made fun of Jack anymore.
    That’s what I thought the story was about. But I was wrong!
    Here is the real story. Jack and his mom were poor, that part was true. Also, he sold the cow to the shady guy and came home with the magic beans. And his mom threw them out, and the beanstalk grew and grew.
    But Jack climbed the beanstalk three times. Each time, he stole something from the giant! The first time, the giant shouted “Fee, fi, foe, fum,” and Jack stole two bags of gold coins and got away. He and his mom could buy whatever they wanted, and they did.
    The second time Jack climbed the beanstalk, he was just being greedy, in my opinion. He stole the giant’s chicken. It turned out she could lay solid gold eggs. Score!
    But even that wasn’t enough for Jack, who by then was loving those magic beans. So Jack climbed the beanstalk a third time to steal the giant’s gold harp that played the best music in the world. When the giant chased after him, which, P.S., who wouldn’t, Jack raced back home, chopped the beanstalk down, and the giant smashed to the ground, dead. “Fee, fi, foe, FUMBLE.”
    Jack never got in trouble for any of this, by the way, and he and his mom lived happily ever after. Or at least until their gold ran out.
    Why is this story special to me? I thought it was because Jack was a guy who messed up but turned out to be a hero. But now, all I can say is that it is special to me because it proves how you should not admire a story just because it’s famous.
    Also, be careful who you want to be like.
    Even if I never see an actual beanstalk my whole life long, I hope I can be a hero someday. But not like Jack.
    The End.

11
    A Challenge
    WOO-HOO! So, obviously, the folk tale assignment is going just great.
    Opposite
.
    On Monday, we worked some more on adding our personal stories to the folk tales we’d chosen. Then we turned them in to Ms. Sanchez.
    That’s the story you just read. I wrote it on our family room computer, so it came out pretty good. I write a lot better—and
longer
—on the computer than when I write by hand. For me, writing by hand is almost like having to carve the words on a rock.
    On Tuesday, Ms. Sanchez read the stories.
    First thing today, Wednesday, Ms. Sanchez gave our stories back to us with her corrections and suggestions. She told us to write them out again for homework tonight, only perfect this time.
    She wrote a
lot
of stuff on my paper, by the way. I haven’t read it all yet, but she said at the end of her comments that she liked it.
    Oh, really, Ms. Sanchez? Even though I basically chose the wrong story?
    After lunch, she is going to talk to each of us in private about our story while the other kids start making their drawings—“illustrations”—to go with their stories. I think my drawing should show Jack in jail, behind bars, for stealing the giant’s gold, his special chicken, and probably some other stuff, too, but that’s not how his story ended.
    That tells you something about the world right there, doesn’t it?
    I also think the boy conferences will be short, and the girl conferences will be long. Girls seem to have a lot more to say about stuff, to make another “sweeping generalization about girls,” as my dad would say.
    But I’m right.
    On Friday, we will read our stories aloud to the whole class. Corey will probably faint, he’ll be so nervous. He’s already worried about it.
    Then our stories and drawings will go up on the wall, Kry predicts, because it’s going to be Parents Day at Oak Glen next Tuesday. She says that’s what was behind this assignment the whole time: Ms. Sanchez needed something cute to put up for Parents Day.
    Right now, though, it is Wednesday nutrition break, and we are outside eating and playing at the same