Jack and the Beanstalk, Retold for Small Children

Jack and the Beanstalk is a favourite for good reason — a beanstalk to the clouds, a giant, a narrow escape. It also contains a stolen harp, a dead giant and a hero whose behaviour does not survive much scrutiny.

Here is a version pitched at three to five, followed by notes on the tricky parts.

The story, gently told

Once there was a boy called Jack who lived with his mother in a small house. They had very little — only a cow named Milky-White.

One morning his mother said, "Jack, the cow has stopped giving milk. You must take her to market and sell her, or we shall have nothing to eat."

So Jack set off, leading the cow along the lane. On the way he met an old man with a curious smile.

"That is a fine cow," said the old man. "I will give you five beans for her."

"Beans?" said Jack. "Five beans for a whole cow?"

"They are not ordinary beans," said the old man. "Plant them tonight, and by morning you will see."

Jack thought about this rather less carefully than he should have, and swapped the cow for the beans.

When he got home his mother was not pleased. Not pleased at all. She threw the beans out of the window and sent Jack to bed without supper, and Jack lay in the dark feeling very foolish indeed.

But in the night, something began to grow.

When Jack woke, the window was dark green. He ran outside. Where the beans had fallen, an enormous beanstalk had grown — thicker than a tree, twisting up and up until it disappeared into the clouds.

So Jack climbed. Up and up, past the birds, until he came out above the clouds onto a road he had never seen.

At the end of the road stood a castle, and everything about it was too big. The steps came to Jack's shoulders. The door was the size of a barn.

A woman as tall as a house opened it. "You poor small thing," she said. "You must be hungry. But you must be quick — my husband is a giant, and he does not like visitors."

She gave Jack bread and milk. And then the whole castle began to shake.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

"Quickly!" she whispered, and hid Jack inside a big copper pot.

The giant came in, sniffing the air, and said the words every child waits for:

"Fee-fi-fo-fum!"

But his wife said it was only the sheep, and the giant sat down to eat.

After his dinner, the giant fetched a hen and set her on the table. "Lay," he said — and the hen laid an egg made of solid gold. Then the giant leaned back and fell asleep, snoring like weather.

Jack crept out of the pot. He looked at the golden egg. He thought about his mother, and the empty cupboard, and no supper. And he picked up the hen and ran.

He ran down the road, down the beanstalk, all the way home.

"Mother!" he called. "Look!"

From then on the hen laid a golden egg whenever they asked, and Jack and his mother were never hungry again.

Jack climbed the beanstalk once more after that — but that is a story for another night.

Notes on the difficult bits

The theft. Older children spot it immediately: Jack stole the hen. This is a good conversation, not a problem to dodge. In older versions there is a justification — the giant had robbed and killed Jack's father — which some retellings restore. You can also simply agree: yes, he did, and it was not really right, and he was hungry. Children can hold both.

Killing the giant. In the full story Jack returns twice more and finally chops the beanstalk while the giant is climbing down. He falls and dies. For under-fives, ending at the hen — as above — is cleaner and loses nothing. Save the ending for six and up, and for daytime.

"Fee-fi-fo-fum ... I'll grind his bones to make my bread." Genuinely gruesome, and genuinely the best line in the story. Most children love it. If yours is easily frightened, "I smell a boy!" carries the moment without the bone-grinding — more on adapting for anxious children.

The giant's wife. Often skipped in short versions, which is a shame — she is the one who is actually kind, and her presence softens the whole middle section.

How to read it aloud

Take the climb slowly. Up and up and up. The height is what makes the story.

Do the thump. Three slow beats, getting louder, before the giant appears. This is the moment children hold their breath for.

Let them do the fee-fi-fo-fum. They will want to. Pause and hand it over.

Race the escape. Speed up on the run down the beanstalk. The contrast with the slow climb is what makes it exciting.

Land the ending quietly. Bring the pace right down for the last two lines so they end calm rather than wound up.

Age and length

The version above suits three to five and runs about four minutes read aloud — a good short option for a tight evening, or a second story.

The full version, with the second and third climbs and the felling of the beanstalk, suits six and up and runs closer to ten minutes.

For where it sits among the other classics, see the best classic fairytales for bedtime.

In your own voice

Jack is a story that rewards a reader who enjoys it — the giant's voice, the thumping, the whispered warning. If you are away and cannot do it yourself, narration in your own voice keeps at least the sound of you in the room.

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