Mabel and the Magic Beans
Mabel and the Magic Beans
By: Abby Simard and Katherine (Katie) Baker (illustrator)
By: Abby Simard and Katherine (Katie) Baker (illustrator)
Embedded Files
Nothing interesting ever happens on the hottest day of the year. Of course, there is the sprinkler to run through until the ground grows soggy and the mud begins to squelch beneath your toes. Perhaps there are popsicles, too, swiped from the freezer until Grandma follows a sticky trail to the bedroom and snatches the melting box on the nightstand. Usually, though, mid-July brings long days indoors filled with little more than the television volume cranked up to be heard over the sound of the air conditioner, and moving only often enough not to let your sweat stick to the faded leather couch.
It was on this couch where Mabel’s grandmother found her on the second Monday in July, flipping through the few channels accessible through an antennae that had been fashioned from a coathanger.
“Mabel, your brain is going to turn to mush if you don’t get up off this couch sometime soon,” Grandma warned.
“I don’t mind.” Mabel said, leaning forward to reach for it.
Instead of giving the remote back, Grandma hit the power button and offered her a yellow card. Taking it, Mabel read aloud: “Plainville Public Library?”
“Why don’t you take a walk to the library and find yourself some books to read? I hate to see you looking so bored.”
“A walk?” Mabel groaned. “But it’s like a hundred degrees out. Besides, I don’t even like reading.”
“Well, then it’s a good thing the library has air conditioning, isn't it?”
Mabel folded her arms across her chest and glared up at her grandmother, who glared right back down at her. A minute passed with each of them waiting to see who would lose their staring contest. Eventually, Mabel peeled herself off the leather couch and made for the door.
“If I’m not back by lunch, it’s because I melted into the sidewalk,” she called. Just before the screen door slammed behind her, she could hear the sound of Grandma chuckling.
At least she thinks I’m funny, Mabel seethed as she stomped down the sidewalk. The heat felt good initially, thawing out her skin after hours of sitting in front of the air conditioner. By the time she reached the end of Grandma’s street, though, her t-shirt was sticking to her back, and her hair had begun to escape its tight braids and tickle her forehead.
At the library, she was hit with a blast of air conditioning that sent goosebumps up her arms. So Grandma was right about one thing, but Mabel still didn’t feel like looking for books. She used to like reading, but she’d grown tired of characters like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. Why couldn’t a girl who looked like her save the world with magical powers?
Just as she was about to give up and leave, a librarian walked by wheeling a squeaky cart full of small packets.
“What’s that?” Mabel asked, trying to see what they were.
“Oh, hello. This is our seed library,” she said. “You can take seeds home with you, plant them, and then bring back new seeds once the plants grow.”
“But I thought libraries were for books.”
The librarian smiled. “We have lots of books, but we also have so much more. Even if you don’t like reading, you can check out movies, games, and even seeds.” She held one packet out to her. “Why don’t you take this one home to plant, and see what grows?”
“What is it?” Mabel looked down at the brown paper envelope. There was no writing at all, not even a picture of the plant the seeds would become. When she opened it up, the seeds glowed softly and let out a gentle hum.
“I was hoping you would tell me once they grow! Someone donated them without a label.”
“Okay,” Mabel said with a shrug. She had never grown any kind of plant before, but she wanted to know what these seeds would become. After thanking the librarian, she tucked the seeds into the pocket of her shorts and set off for Grandma’s house.
When Grandma saw Mabel return with a package of mysterious seeds and no library book, she snatched the envelope and handed her a sponge.
“Oh no, Grandma, not the dishes,” Mabel groaned.
“The day you come back with a book to read will be the day you do not have to help with chores.”
As Mabel scrubbed, she watched through the kitchen window as her grandmother carried the seeds to the backyard, emptied the packet, and threw some dirt over the top. Once Grandma was back inside, Mabel bent over the sink and watched the water pool at the bottom. The sponge squelched in her hand, making her stomach turn. She hated doing the dishes: the stuck-on food that grew soggy in the sinkwater, the smell, the way it turned the skin on her hands all wrinkly, and—
“Oh! Mabel, exactly what kind of seeds were those?”
Mabel dropped the dish in her hand and looked up to see something growing in the backyard. It shimmered in the midday light, and if Grandma wasn’t standing there next to her, she might have thought she was imagining the sight.
“Let’s go see!” Mabel wiped her hands on the nearest dish towel and raced to the door. Bewildered, Grandma followed close behind. When they reached the plant, they stood and watched as a shimmering beanstalk began to stretch high in the sky at a speed that made the ground shake beneath them. Wind circled the beanstalk, lifting Mabel’s braids in the air and flattening Grandma’s gray curls across her forehead.
“Mabel!” Grandma shouted over the noise, fighting to stay on her feet. But Mabel wasn’t listening. She moved closer to the beanstalk, reaching her hands upward to find something to grab onto. “Mabel, no!”
Even if Mabel had been able to hear Grandma’s protests, it wouldn’t have stopped her from taking a running leap onto the beanstalk and letting it lift her into the air. All at once, the ground stopped shaking and the wind died down, and everything that had been disturbed settled once again.
Everything except for Grandma, who was shouting and waving her hands desperately as if that would bring her granddaughter back down to Earth.
Mabel waved happily down at Grandma and watched the town shrink below her as shapes began to form above the clouds. The beanstalk grew thicker as it stretched taller and taller, and the vines she held onto wrapped comfortably around her hands and sneakers. It was as if the plant were holding her gently in place.
When she burst through the clouds, she landed in a field of yellow grass that crunched beneath her feet, and the sky that had been blue at home was now a dull gray. A stone building loomed before her, so with nothing else in sight, she pushed open the large doors.
“A library,” she whispered as the doors groaned open, revealing a large room filled with shelves of books. But as she looked closer, she noticed these shelves were much emptier than the ones at the Plainville Library. She took a step forward and slipped on something that had fallen to the ground. It was a piece of paper. Curious, Mabel bent to pick it up and read the words on the page: Draw me a sun, said the star. And the artist drew the sun.
She didn’t recognize the words, but she knew the picture of the sun had been painted by Eric Carle. Her dad had read her enough Eric Carle books for her to know the illustrator’s work. The sight of it filled her with warmth, and she hugged the page to her chest as she continued to the next room of the library.
The sound of a low growl made her pause just inside the door. She hadn’t even considered that there might be someone else here, but it was impossible to miss the heavy footsteps that echoed in between the bookshelves. Heart pounding, Mabel jumped behind the closest bookshelf as a long shadow stretched into the center of the room. She peeked through the books to make out large hands, green skin, and a hairy face. It was a giant! With a shudder, she sank lower to the ground, trying to be as quiet as possible.
Maybe I can slip out without him knowing I was ever here, she thought. But she couldn’t help peering closer as the giant began to browse the shelves. With a roar, he pulled a book off the shelf, but he was so clumsy that a few more fell with it. Mabel shrank back as he began to growl in a voice that shook the room:
Fee, fi, fo, fum
I do not like what’s in this story!
Be it false or be it true,
I’ll destroy this book, and that one, too!
The giant raised his other big hand and began to pull apart both sides of the book’s cover. With another growl, he tore the book in two and threw both halves so hard that they slammed into opposite walls of the library. The front cover landed at the end of the bookshelf that Mabel hid behind, and she could just make out the title from where she crouched: James and the Giant Peach.
She let out a soft gasp. It was one of the first chapter books her dad read to her, before he told her she was old enough to read on her own. Dad had stopped after every chapter to ask if she was too scared, and even though she was a little, she wouldn’t let him stop reading. Why would someone destroy such a good book?
The giant roared again, taking another book off the shelf and ignoring the others that fell with it. He waved it around in a rage and began his chant again.
Fee, fi, fo, fum
I do not like what’s in this story!
Be it false or be it true,
I’ll destroy—
“Wait!” Mabel wasn’t sure what drove her forward, but once she had the giant’s attention, she realized she hadn’t planned out what came next.
“Who is this little girl in my library?” The giant shouted, sending a wave of stinky breath in Mabel’s direction that blew her braids backward. Then, he sniffed the air and tilted his head to the side as if in thought. “She smells…delicious.”
Mabel gulped. She was hoping he wouldn’t say that. “Please don’t eat me, er— can I see that book?” her voice came out as a tiny squeak, but she stood her ground.
“Little girl wants to see this book?” The giant let out a menacing laugh. He waved it above Mabel’s head, and when she went to reach for it, he pulled it back with another cackle. “No! This is my library, which means that all the books here are mine to read or mine to destroy.” He leaned down, his red eyes glowing with anger. “And, any child who enters this library is mine to eat.”
“Wait!” Mabel protested, throwing up her palms as the giant snapped his jaws. “But that’s not what a library is! You’re supposed to share the books with other people so that everyone can read more!” This made the giant pause, and she seized the opportunity. “Why are you tearing up the books instead of sharing them with others?”
Just when she thought the giant was about to explode with rage, his face crumpled. The book fell to the floor with a crash, and his shoulders began to droop until he seemed like not so much a giant as a regular human being.
“I don’t like these books, because none of them have giants in them.”
Mabel picked up the book that had fallen out of her hands and nearly dropped it in surprise. It was just like the book from the library, but the girl on the cover looked exactly like her. Book-Mabel stood with a determined expression, braids flying out in different directions as she wielded her lightning bolts. She smiled as she hugged the book close.
But when she looked up at the giant, he still stood there looking crumpled. She understood now what had driven him to tear up the beautiful books on these shelves.
“It can be hard to read books when none of the characters look like you, but that doesn’t mean you can tear them up, because those characters do look like some kids.” She pointed at the book in her hand. “Like this one, see? She looks like me.”
The giant looked closer, and when he saw the resemblance, it only made him more sad.
“But I bet you can’t find a book about a giant who’s nice. When they are in books, they’re described as mean and ugly and scary, but that’s not me at all.”
“I have an idea,” said Mabel. “Do you have any paper? And maybe some colored pencils?”
“This is a library. Of course we have paper and colored pencils.”
Mabel followed the giant through another door, and she couldn’t believe it when they entered the children’s section of the library in the sky.
Paper and colored pencils were spread over a table in the middle of the room. Mabel got to work, writing and drawing the story of how she met a giant who gave her the best gift she’d ever received: a book about a girl like her. When she was finished, she stapled the pages together to make it look like a real book and presented it to the giant.
“Look! I made a book about a giant!”
She stood there watching him read it, and slowly, a smile spread across his face.
“This is the most beautiful gift I have ever received! But wait, do I have to share it with others since it’s in my library?”
Mabel laughed. “Not every book has to be a library book. I think it’s okay for you to keep this one if you want. But can the others all stay?”
The giant nodded. “I suppose that’s okay.”
Mabel jumped for joy. She couldn’t contain her excitement. “I have to go now, but can I come back tomorrow to see what other books you have?”
“Of course. I think I like the idea of sharing my library.”
Mabel smiled all the way back down the beanstalk, keeping her new book tucked under her arm. This summer was going to be much better than she expected—all because of a seed she’d planted, and the magical story it had grown.
Meet the creators
Meet the creators
Abby Simard (author) is the Head of Youth Services at the Plainville Public Library. Before working in libraries, she studied creative writing at the George Washington University, and she has always loved reading and writing stories.
Katherine (Katie) Baker (illustrator) is an artist and poet, a library worker and avid public servant, and a passionate naturalist. She is a Circulation Associate at the Plainville Public Library, and she currently serves as the third Poet Laureate of her hometown, Woodbury, Connecticut.
The Plainville Public Library is located in Plainville's town center serving a close-knit community of 17,500 residents. Our historic building originally opened in 1931, and has since been expanded multiple times, including an ongoing renovation to designate a new space for teens. We can be found on social media @PlainvilleLibrary.
Let's Discuss!
Let's Discuss!
Both Mabel and the giant don’t like reading much. How are their reasons similar and different? Have you ever felt like them?
What do you think about the giant’s solution to his problem? What about Mabel’s? Which one do you think was more helpful?
If you could climb up a beanstalk to a magical library, what do you think it would look like? What would you want it to look like?
There's always more to do!
There's always more to do!
Draw a picture of your dream library in the sky. Is there a beanstalk to climb up to it, or a different way to get there?
Mabel and the Magic Beans: The Zine! Can you make one too?
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse