With its modest yet mischievous title an entirely fitting harbinger of
the tone and tales to come, A Handful of Beans is an ample demonstration
that, yes, we can use another "Jack and the Beanstalk" (and another
"Rumpelstiltskin, " "Beauty and the Beast, " "Hansel and Gretel, "
"Little Red Riding Hood, " and "The Frog Prince"). While fairy-tale
parodies and updates are perhaps too much with us these days, Jeanne
Steig goes the trend one better in her homely retellings, adding the
gentlest touches of wit without ever betraying the story: after the king
sees what Rumpelstiltskin has spun the first night, for example, he says
to the miller's daughter, "My, my...what a lovely surprise. We must do
this again." Steig also provides illuminating detail. When Hansel and
Gretel go to sleep in the witch's house, it is under "sheets as soft as
a spider's web, " and Red Riding Hood's wolf is a suave seducer: "But
see here, my girl. Violets are blooming, finches are singing, the sun is
tickling the little green leaves, and here you are, tramping along as if
you were late for school. Why don't you look around you a bit, and enjoy
the world?" As you can easily see, these tales would be great fun for
reading aloud, and occasionally bits of verse, beautifully scanned,
provide an incantatory charm of their own: "Pardon me, Mistress, the
door is so small, / I could never squeeze into the oven at all." William
Steig's line-and-watercolor illustrations, four or five per story, are
humble and funny, and the book's compact size is just right for a little
one-on-one session in cultural literacy.
