It's Not About the Diamonds! Read online

  brother didn’t recognize him.

  “A monster!” they screamed

  and then fled in terror,

  leaving the greedy boy all alone.

  And since they never went back,

  Uba may still be there.

  LUNCHTIME

  PART 2

  “Wow, that was scary,” said Ben.

  “And what are yams?” asked Jake.

  “They look like potatoes,

  but they’re sweet,” Lily replied.

  “I’ve never had one,” said Jake.

  “Me, neither,” said Ben.

  “You know what?” said Lily.

  “I’ll ask my mom to cook some,

  and I’ll bring them

  for my lunch tomorrow.

  You can have a taste!”

  “Great!” said Jake.

  “I’ll bring some strawberries.”

  “And I’ll bring potato chips,”

  said Ben. “We can eat those after.”

  ABOUT THE STORIES

  Diamonds and Toads might be the best known of the stories belonging to a type of tale called “The Kind and the Unkind Girls.” Over a thousand of these tales have been found around the world. Here are three of them:

  Three Gnomes is a story from Germany, and this is my retelling of the Grimms’ tale The Three Little Gnomes in the Forest.

  Rice Cakes is based on a story from Bali, Indonesia, called Red Onion, White Onion.

  Old Man of the River comes from the Kikuyu people in Kenya, Africa, where it’s called Cook, Eat and Carry Me. In my version, I changed the two sisters to two brothers.