Reading Notes: English Tales, Part B

 

Good ole' Johnny-Cake. Source: Pxhere.

    This story was about a cake that came to life in an oven and ran away. The story starts off with an old man and woman as well as a young boy. The old woman puts the boy in charge of watching the cake in the oven while she and the old man go outside to tend to the garden. Like most young boys, the little boy did not watch the cake the whole time. The cake, known as Johnny-Cake, manages to open the oven door and make it outside before the boy has time to shut the open door of the house. Johnny-Cake outruns the old couple and the little boy who all decide to chase after him. Johnny-Cake comes across some well-diggers and challenges them to try to catch them. They eventually get tired and stop to rest. Johnny-Cake, then, approaches some ditch-diggers and challenges them as well. They, too, are unable to catch Johnny-Cake and decided to give up the chase. This happens again and again with a variety of characters until Johnny-Cake encounters a fox. The fox tricks Johhny-Cake to come closer and closer to him until the fox snatches him up and eats him.

    I really liked this story because it reminded me of the story of "The Gingerbread Man." I think that I might want to do a rendition of this story because there is a lot of room for creativity. I love the idea of a cake coming to life and being able to escape from all who want to eat it! If I were to make my own story with this one as my source, I think I would most likely change the characters that Johnny-Cake encounters to try to give it my own twist. I think I would also elaborate on the idea of Johnny-Cake coming alive in the oven and have it be in front of the little boy's eyes.

Story Source: "Johnny-Cake" from English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1890).