Text copyright © 2013 by Veronika Martenova Charles
Illustrations copyright © 2013 by David Parkins
Published in Canada by Tundra Books, a division of Random House of Canada Limited,
One Toronto Street, Suite 300, Toronto, Ontario M5C 2V6
Published in the United States by Tundra Books of Northern New York,
P.O. Box 1030, Plattsburgh, New York 12901
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012945430
All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher – or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency – is an infringement of the copyright law.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Charles, Veronika Martenova
It’s not about the tiny girl! / Veronika Martenova Charles; illustrated by David Parkins.
(Easy-to-read wonder tales)
Short stories based on Thumbelina and toads tales from around the world.
eISBN: 978-1-77049-334-6
1. Fairy tales. I. Parkins, David II. Title. III. Series: Charles,
Veronika Martenova. Easy-to-read wonder tales.
PS8555.H42242I839 2013 jC813′.54 C2012-905306-6
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and that of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporation’s Ontario Book Initiative. We further acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program.
Edited by Stacey Roderick
www.tundrabooks.com
v3.1
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Show and Tell Part 1
Peanut Boy
(Thumbelina from Chile)
Little Inch
(Thumbelina from Japan)
Baby-man
(Thumbelina from Native America)
Show and Tell Part 2
About the Stories
SHOW AND TELL
PART 1
“Guess what I brought
for Show and Tell today,”
Lily said to Ben and Jake
at recess.
She took a walnut shell
from her pocket
and opened it.
Inside was a teeny, tiny doll,
lying on a piece of cotton.
“Can I see?” asked Ben.
“Wow. She’s so little!”
“This is Thumbelina,”
Lily told her friends.
“Who’s Thumbelina?” asked Jake.
“In the story, she is a tiny girl
who was born in a flower pot,”
explained Lily.
“She sleeps in a nutshell,
and some animals steal her.
Then a bird takes her away –”
“I know a story like that,”
interrupted Jake.
“But it’s not about a tiny girl.
It’s about a tiny boy!
Do you want to hear it?”
“Sure!” replied Lily and Ben.
PEANUT BOY
(Thumbelina from Chile)
In a mountain valley lived
a woman and her husband.
One day, the woman saw
an old man passing by.
“Is there some place where
I could get something to eat?”
he asked. “All I’ve had today
are some peanuts.”
“Come in,” said the woman,
inviting the man into her hut.
She gave him a plate of potatoes.
“Do you have any children?”
the old man asked.
“No, but we wish we did,”
the woman replied sadly.
“It’s lonely with no children.”
The old man finished eating.
He reached into his bag
and pulled out a peanut.
“Thank you for being so kind,”
the old man said.
“Plant this peanut
and you’ll get your wish.”
The woman laughed,
but later she planted the nut
and watched it sprout.
When its leaves turned yellow,
she pulled the plant out
and saw a pod in its roots.
She split it open.
What a surprise!
Inside was a tiny boy
the size of a peanut!
So the woman and her husband
named the baby Peanut.
They loved him and cared for him,
but in time they began to worry
because Peanut didn’t grow.
Every time his parents went out,
But once, they left him at home.
After a while, Peanut wandered
outside and climbed a stone.
Suddenly, it began to rain heavily.
Peanut hid among the leaves
of a fallen branch.
Just then, a huge bird came
looking for twigs for its nest.
It grabbed the branch
where Peanut was hiding!
The bird soared into the air.
Peanut clung to the leaves
as he was carried
high up to a mountaintop.
The bird dropped the branch
beside its nest and left.
Peanut crawled off the branch.
He looked for something to eat
and found some berries.
There was a hole in the rock
where he could sleep.
So Peanut stayed close to the nest,
watching when the bird
came back to feed her babies.
One day, he spied a snake
climbing up to the nest,
ready to strike and eat the chicks.
They hadn’t learned to fly yet,
so they chirped desperately
when they saw the snake.
Peanut looked around
and saw a twig with thorns on it.
He picked it up, and when
the snake opened its mouth
to grab the chicks,
he pierced its long tongue
with the thorny twig.
The serpent pulled back in pain,
fell off the rock,
and tumbled down into the canyon.
Just then, the mother bird came
and saw how Peanut
had saved her chicks.
She left again and returned
with a big bone in her beak.
She placed it in front of Peanut.
This must be a bone of a giant,
thought Peanut, and he touched it.
At once, his body began to grow
until he was as big as a normal boy.
Then the bird tapped him
with her wing
and turned her head toward a trail.
She wants me to go with her,
thought Peanut.
How different everything
looked now!
He climbed down the steep trail,
following the bird all the way
to the bottom of the mountain.
There he saw a hut.
“I know this place!” cried Peanut.
“This is where my parents live!”
The mother bird circled above,
and then flew away.
When Peanut first entered the hut,
his parents didn’t recognize him.
But after he told them his story,
they were happy to have him back
and amazed to see him fully grown.
“That’s a good story,” said Lily.
“What did you bring
for Show and Tell?” she asked Ben.
“I brought my pet rock,”
he replied, taking a rock out
of his coat pocket.
It had button eyes glued on it.
Ben poked at the eyes.
“This reminds me of another story,”
he said. “It’s about a tiny boy
who fought ogres!”
“How could he fight them
if he was so small?” asked Jake.
“I’ll tell you,” said Ben.
LITTLE INCH
(Thumbelina from Japan)
There was once a man and a woman
who wished to have a child.
They went to a temple to pray.
“Please, give us a child,” they said.
“We will love it even if it is
as small as the tip of a finger.”
And soon after that
a baby boy was born to them,
as tiny as a fingertip.
They raised the boy with love
and care, but he didn’t grow.
When he was one year old,
he was just one inch tall.
“Let’s call him Little Inch,”
his parents decided.
When he was five years old,
And when he was seven,
still he was only one inch tall.
One day, Little Inch said,
“I want to go and see the world.”
“You’re too small,” said Mother.
“There are ogres in the world.
Who will protect you?”
“I’ll take your sewing needle,”
said Little Inch.
“I will defend myself with it.”
“But how will you travel?”
Father asked. “You’re too small.”
“I’ll use a rice bowl for a boat
and chopsticks to row with,”
Little Inch replied.
So his parents gave him
what he asked for.
They took him to the river
and set him afloat on the water.
“Good luck, Little Inch!”
his parents called as the river
carried the rice bowl away.
After many days,
Little Inch reached a big city.
He steered his rice bowl
to the shore and jumped out.
Then he walked around and
stopped in front of a grand house.
He went inside and called,
“Is anybody there?”
“Who’s calling?”
asked the master of the house.
“Look down,” said Little Inch,
who stood by a wooden shoe.
“Will you take me in?”
asked Little Inch.
“I can work for you.”
“Well,” replied the master,
“my daughter needs a playmate.”
So Little Inch stayed
and played with the daughter.
One day, the girl went for a walk
and took Little Inch with her.
On the way home, two ogres
jumped out from behind the trees.
They grabbed her.
“Let her go!”
demanded Little Inch, and
he pulled out his needle-sword.
The ogres were amused.
One of them picked up Little Inch
and swallowed him whole.
But Little Inch could move
around in the ogre’s stomach.
He waved his needle-sword,
stabbing the soft wall around him.
The ogre coughed
and spat Little Inch out.
Now the other ogre picked him up
and was about to crush him,
but Little Inch slipped
through the ogre’s fingers
and jumped into his eye.
“Ouch!” the ogre screamed
and let go of the girl.
Then both ogres ran away,
back into the woods.
“Look! They dropped something!”
called Little Inch.
“This is a magic golden hammer,”
said the girl. “I’ve heard about it.
If I shake it,
my wish will come true.”
“Please,” asked Little Inch,
“can you wish to make me taller?”
The girl shook the hammer
and called, “Grow tall, grow tall!”
Instantly, Little Inch began
to grow until he was as tall
as the master’s daughter.
“Thank you!” cried Little Inch.
In the years that followed,
Little Inch grew into
a fine young samurai.
Then he returned to his village
and cared for his parents
for the rest of their days.
“How did his parents
recognize him?” asked Jake.
“He could have been anyone.”
“Well,” said Ben,
“maybe he brought the rice bowl
they gave him.”
“I know a story about a tiny boy, too,”
said Lily. “But he is bigger
than Peanut and Little Inch.
He is the size of a baby.
The story goes like this …”
BABY-MAN
(Thumbelina from Native America)
On the shore of a beautiful lake
lived a little boy and his sister.
He didn’t grow like other children
but remained small like a baby.
Yet, he was very, very strong
and could run faster
than the wind.
One winter day, Baby-man
said to his sister,
“Please make me a ball.
I’d like to go and play on the ice.”
His sister made him a ball.
“Don’t go too far!” she said.
Baby-man started off,
throwing the ball ahead of him
and running after it.
There were some dark spots
on the ice in the distance.
When Baby-man came closer,
he saw four large men
fishing with spears.
Baby-man threw the ball again,
and this time the ball landed
beside the men.
“Please,” Baby-man called out,
“can you throw me the ball?”
The men turned around.
“Look at that little creature!”
they said with ugly laughs.
“Ready?” they asked the boy.
“Catch the ball!”
But they didn’t toss it to him.
Instead, they passed it
among themselves
until the game bored them.
Then they dropped the ball
into the ice hole
and went back to their fishing.
How cruel! thought Baby-man.
They think because I’m small,
they can torment me.
Baby-man crept close to the men
and grabbed a large fish
they had just caught.
Then he ran away with it.
The men looked up.
First they thought that the fish
was running away by itself.
Then they realized it was
the boy carrying
it.
“You’ll pay for this!” they yelled.
They started running after him,
but the boy was too fast.
“Never mind,” one of the men said.
“Tomorrow we’ll follow his tracks
and kill him.”
When Baby-man reached home,
he gave the fish to his sister.
“How did you get it?” she asked.
“I found it on the ice.
It’s from our lake,” he replied.
“But I think I have made
some men angry,” he said.
The next morning, there was
a sound of snowshoes moving
across the frozen lake.
The sister went to the door
and saw four big men
coming toward the lodge.
“Brother!” she called, frightened.
“Some men are coming over here.”
“Don’t worry,” Baby-man said.
He went outside and
waited for them by a boulder.
The men came onto the shore
and loaded their bows with arrows.
They climbed the hill to the lodge.
“I see the creature! Over there!”
one of the men called.
As they approached,
Baby-man pushed the boulder,
and it rolled toward them.
The men saw the boy do it
and jumped out of the way
just before the big stone
could crush them.
That is not an ordinary boy,
the men thought,
and they ran away in fear.
“Everything is all right now,”
Baby-man told his sister.
“Those men won’t come back.
They’re afraid of me,” he said.
“Let’s cut the fish up and dry it,”
the sister said.
“We will have enough to eat
for the whole spring.”
SHOW AND TELL
PART 2
“Brrr!” said Jake.
“That story made me feel cold.”
“What did you bring
for Show and Tell?” Ben asked.
“I forgot to bring something,”