Fairy tale · 声匠改编 · 3:36
Jack and the Beanstalk
Jack swaps the family cow for five magic beans, climbs into the clouds, and tiptoes past a giant. A funny bedtime retelling where nobody falls.
Narrator
Jack
Jack's Mother
The Bean Seller
The Giant
The Giant's Wife
The Golden HarpAbout this story
Jack and the Beanstalk is an English folk tale. It first appeared in print in 1734, and the version most people know comes from Joseph Jacobs's English Fairy Tales (1890). In this bedtime retelling Jack brings home only the hen and the harp, which the giant once stole, and nobody falls: the giant is left grumbling on his cloud, where his wife puts him to work.
What it teaches
Jack is brave, quick and a little bit foolish, and things turn out well because he keeps going. It is also a story about trusting a hunch and putting stolen things back where they belong.
Suits
Ages 3–8
Tips for telling it
- Boom out the giant's Fee! Fi! Fo! Fum! together, as loud as you dare.
- Grow the beanstalk with your hands, starting low and reaching for the ceiling.
- Ask your child: would you have swapped the cow for the beans?
Questions people ask
- What is the moral of Jack and the Beanstalk?
- Courage and quick thinking can change your luck. Benjamin Tabart's 1807 version added that the giant had stolen his treasure from Jack's own father, so Jack is taking back what was wrongly taken.
- Where does Fee-fi-fo-fum come from?
- The giant's chant is older than this story. A version appears in Shakespeare's King Lear, written around 1606, and in the old tale of Jack the Giant Killer.
- Who wrote Jack and the Beanstalk?
- No single author; it is a traditional English folk tale. The earliest known printing dates from 1734, and Joseph Jacobs's 1890 retelling became the classic version.
Theater
Reborn at My Engagement Party
声匠原创
Pushed down the stairs by her fiancé and her sister, Shen Qingci wakes up at her own engagement party. She exposes them both, then he whispers in her ear: did you come back too?
Borrowing Arrows with Straw Boats
Romance of the Three Kingdoms · Luo Guanzhong (original) · VoiceSmiths adaptation · 1522
Zhou Yu sets a trap: 100,000 arrows in ten days. Kongming asks for three, waits for fog, and lets Cao Cao pay. Same cast as the Chinese episode.
The North Wind and the Sun
声匠改编
The boastful North Wind and the gentle Sun bet on who can make a traveler take off his cloak. Aesop's fable of why warmth wins where force fails, retold.
