A "different" Jack and the Beanstalk

Almost-four-year-old sitting charge A and I spent this morning at the theatre. Puppet Showplace Theatre has seen its share of kid audiences, and that was clear in everything from the seating configuration to the participatory discussion of how to be a good audience member. (The kids knew exactly what the grown-ups in the audience should do with their ringing, beeping "toys.")

While we were making plans to go, A noticed that Jack on the theater's website wasn't wearing the hat he wears in the version she has at home, and the discrepancy led to a fairly long discussion: "Maybe he only wears his hat sometimes. Maybe he wears it in the house and not outside the house." I was glad she raised the question because it reminded me that kids can get attached to familiar versions of stories and might need some warning that there's more than one way to tell a tale. I have vague memories of my parents telling my sister and me that, for instance, we'd be seeing "a different Cinderella"--one with Rodgers and Hammerstein lyrics but no Disney mice.

I told A the same thing about this JATB, and we talked a little about how stories can have different versions because people can tell them in different ways. She enjoyed the Crabtree Puppet Theatre performance troupe's funny and very age-appropriate way of telling this one as well as the demonstration at the end of how the puppets worked.

And then, of course, we went to the library.