Jack and the Beanstalk The Old English Folktale Told as a Novella

A poor farm boy falls for a beautiful princess as she listens to villagers complaining that boys have been mysteriously disappearing from the valley for many years. Jack's limited prospects for love diminish even further when his mother's only source of income, a cow, quits giving milk. Tempted by riches that could improve his chances with Princess Lilian, Jack trades the family cow for five magical beans. By morning, the seeds grow into a vine that reaches the sky. To redeem himself in his mother's eyes, Jack climbs the beanstalk to a land above the clouds where he learns that a terrible ogre eats boys for breakfast.

Jack and the Beanstalk is part of the Klaassen's Classic Folktales collection of ancient stories first published in the early 1800s, now enhanced for the 21st century.

Mike Klaassen writes stories about young people facing daunting challenges. Each of his three novels, The Brute, Cracks, and Backlash: A War of 1812 Novel, has been awarded a B.R.A.G. Medallion. Ongoing research encouraged Mike to write books about the craft of writing fiction. The use of folktales as examples in his nonfiction books led him to begin Klaassen's Classic Folktales, a collection of ancient stories retold as novellas.