It's Not about the Crumbs! Read online

  “Let’s go to it,”

  he called to his brothers

  and showed them which way to go.

  At last, they came to a hut.

  There was an old woman inside,

  sitting by the fire.

  The boys entered the house.

  “We are lost and can’t find

  our way in the dark.

  May we stay here tonight?”

  “I would like to help you,”

  the woman replied,

  “but this is an ogre’s house.

  The ogre will be home soon.

  If he finds you, he will eat you.

  You should leave right now.”

  As she was talking, they heard

  the ogre’s footsteps outside.

  THUMP, THUMP.

  “I told you!” the woman cried.

  “Hurry, hide in here.”

  She put them in a storage pit

  and covered it with a mat.

  Just then, the ogre came in.

  Sniff, sniff, he smelled the air.

  “It stinks of humans,” he said

  and began to search the hut.

  The old woman was frightened.

  “A while ago three boys came by.

  Then they ran away,” she said.

  “Their odor must still be here.”

  “Maybe I can still catch them,”

  said the ogre.

  He put on his hundred mile boots

  and shot away like an arrow.

  He ran far, but didn’t find them.

  Perhaps I went too far, he thought.

  The boys will surely come soon.

  He sat down and fell asleep.

  When the ogre left, the woman

  opened up the storage pit.

  “The ogre had his fast boots on.

  He will be far away by now,”

  she told the boys.

  “Run for your lives!”

  The boys hurried along the path

  until they heard thunder.

  Wondering what it was,

  they went closer and saw the ogre

  snoring by the road.

  The two older boys were so scared

  that they started to cry.

  “Crying won’t do any good,”

  Kenji told his brothers.

  “If we can get the ogre’s boots,

  he won’t be able to catch us.”

  Kenji snuck up to the ogre

  and gently pulled his boots off,

  one by one.

  He took them to his brothers.

  “Put them on!” he told them,

  giving each brother one boot.

  “Now, fly!” said Kenji

  and he held onto his brothers.

  Instantly they flew into the air.

  Soon they saw their mother’s house

  and they landed on the ground.

  Their mother was glad to see them,

  and her sons worked hard,

  using the magical boots

  to help earn money for food.

  POPCORN PART 2

  “Let’s go back and see

  if the popcorn is still there,”

  Jake said to Ben and Lily.

  “In Hansel and Gretel,

  the crumbs get eaten by birds,”

  said Lily.

  As they walked back,

  they found the popcorn

  still on the ground.

  Lily and Ben chased after it.

  “I guess there are not many birds

  around here,” said Lily.

  “Maybe they don’t like popcorn,”

  said Ben.

  The three kids turned the corner.

  “This is the street,” said Jake.

  “Which house is your uncle’s?”

  asked Ben.

  “They all look the same.”

  “I don’t know,” answered Jake.

  “I didn’t look at the number.”

  “We’ll have to wait,” said Lily.

  They sat down on the curb.

  Finally, a door opened,

  and Jake’s mother came out.

  “I was just about to go

  and look for you,” she said.

  “I thought maybe you got lost.”

  “We came back a while ago,”

  said Lily.

  “Mom, do you have more popcorn?”

  Jake asked. “We’re starving.”

  “I can make you some,” she said,

  and they all went inside.

  ABOUT THE STORIES

  The Grimms’ story of Hansel and Gretel is perhaps the most popular of tales about small children who outsmart a witch or an ogre. But there are many other stories of this type, told in different cultures.

  The Children in the Woods is based in part on an American-English folktale, The Two Lost Babes. Here I have combined it with a few other elements from similar European tales.

  Zahra and Binti has its roots in several versions of a story called Fatma the Beautiful, that comes from the Nubian culture in Sudan, Africa.

  The Ogre is based on the story called The Oni and the Three Children that is widespread in Japan.