What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
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Bedtime Stories for Six Year Olds
SOLVED: Children's/YA
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SOLVED. Children's short story, read early 2000s. Girl in orphanage with giant feet gets adopted by nasty woman who makes her do chores and paint the house. [s]
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while i really don't know, you can check out short stories and collections by Enid Blyton here:https://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/s...
I had high hopes of "Bertha with the Big Feet" published in Folktales And Legends but that is a story about a princess who is the future bride of King Pippin III (based on a historical figure with this nickname!) so we can rule that one out :)
Is there any chance it's on this list of giants in fiction? https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
The story 'Elephant Milk, Hippopatamus Cheese' by Margaret Mahy looks like a match. It appears in Bedtime Stories for Six Year Olds edited by Helen Paiba - there's a copy on archive.org here: https://archive.org/details/bedtimest...Some quotes:
There was once an orphan named Deedee who had the biggest feet in the world.
“And she’s worked very hard too. She must be tremendously hungry by now,” the man said. “Never mind! I have an idea. Leave this to me.” Then he turned to Deedee. “Dear adopted daughter,” he said, “we have a delicious meal of roast turkey and cranberry sauce, not to mention three colours of jelly and ice cream for dessert. But your dear adopted mother and I have one more job for you. We want you to paint the ceiling.”
"What beautiful shoes!” he cried wistfully. “Oh, if I were to find the feet that fitted this footwear I know I would love them.” Weedy Deedee couldn’t help wiggling her toes through sheer nervousness and the movement caught the giant’s blue eyes.
Not sure if the story appears in other collections, but hopefully this is the one you are looking for!
That's it! Of course it was Margaret Mahy! Thank you Becca ☺️
What's the Name of That Book???
Books mentioned in this topic
Bedtime Stories for Six Year Olds (other topics)Folktales And Legends (other topics)
The main character is a girl with giant feet who lives in an orphanage. Her feet are larger than an adult man's. One day she's adopted by a woman who wants someone to do all her chores. She won't be adopted until she's done all the chores she's assigned.
The girl washes dishes and does all the other chores she's been given until the woman tells her that her last chore is to paint the ceilings of the house but the girl isn't tall enough to reach them so she runs off to cry. She's sitting hidden partly in a bush (in a field? By a river?) and hears a voice compliment her toes and she wiggles them like they're laughing. She comes out, finds a giant, talks to him and shares some of his giant food, then finds she's grown and is now tall enough to paint the ceilings. She and the giant have decided to get married over this conversation, so she tells the giant she just has to go home and do one last chore for her mother, painting the ceiling, then she'll be adopted and her new.motjwr can give her blessing to the marriage.
The girl goes back to the house, the 'mother' isn't very happy to see her, but she paints the ceilings then sits down in the newly painted room to eat the rest of the food that the giant gave her. It makes her start growing and growing and growing, until she wears the house like a dress and runs off to marry the giant. He's very excited to see her and tells her the dress looks lovely and she tells him it should, the ceilings have just been painted!