What is A Handful of Beans ? Six classics in one book: "Rumpelstiltskin"", ""Beauty and the Beast"", ""Hansel and Gretel"", ""Little Red Riding Hood"", ""The Frog Prince"" and ""Jack and the Beanstalk"". As retold by Jeanne Steig, however, these well-loved tales acquire a certain modern vim. For example, the greedy King in Rumpelstiltskin is ""as happy as a hog with a herring"" to see all his straw spun into gold. The mother of Beanstalk Jack has ""a dab of a garden, and an old cow called Blizzard, because she was as white as the milk she gave, except for a few spots to make her more interesting."" Although the vocabulary is generally simple, Steig doesn't shy away from words like ""sauntered"" and ""rapacious"". And the Frog-who-would-be-Prince, among other characters, regularly breaks into rhyming couplets. Combined with 34 colourful, cartoony illustrations by William Steig, this gently ironic smattering of folktales will delight the grumpiest of readers. (Ages 3 to 6) -- Richard Farr, Amazon.com "

 

This book was recognised by the Parents' Choice Award.

There are 144 pages in this book. This is a picture book. A picture book uses pictures and text to tell the story. The number of words varies from zero ('wordless') to around 1k over 32 pages. Picture books are typically aimed at young readers (age 3-6) but can also be aimed at older children (7+). This book was published 1999 by HarperCollins Publishers Inc .

Also by William Steig: Brave Irene, The Amazing Bone, Amos & Boris and Doctor De Soto