To the guys on the block, J. T. is the kid who stole the radio out of the red convertible. His mother is bewildered -- "He's just gone bad, that's all... Stealin' and lyin' and I don't know what all." But all the sensitivity, responsibility, and care of which ten-year-old J. T. Gamble is capable emerges when he finds an old, one-eyed, badly hurt alley cat.

A boy climbs to the top of a giant beanstalk, where he uses his quick wits to outsmart a giant and make his mother's fortune.

One day a boy named Jack sold his cow for magic beans, but his mother threw them out as soon as she saw them. The next morning the beans grew into a beanstalk; and at the top of the beanstalk was a castle where a giant lived. ( )