This book was created and published on StoryJumper™

©2010 StoryJumper, Inc.   All rights reserved.

Publish your own children's book: 

www.storyjumper.com

Once upon a time... 

...there was an old man and woman who 

lived in a small village near the edge of a 

forest. They were a very kind couple, but 

were sad because they had no children of 

their own. 

    One day, the old man went out to the forest to cut 

some trees, while his wife carried their laundry to the 

river for washing. While the woman was scrubbing 

her clothes, she was surprised to see a giant peach 

floating towards her down the river. 

    "Wow, that's a huge peach," she said. "It looks as 

large as the moon!”

    "Come here you big peach!" shouted the woman. 

Slowly, as if by magic, the peach bobbed over to 

where she was on the river bank. 

    "This sure is a mysterious peach," she said, hoisting 

the giant fruit out of the water.

    The old woman strained to lift the peach, and 

had great trouble carrying it back to the house. That 

night the old man returned from the forest, hungry 

and ready for dinner. 

    "Whoa," he said, seeing the peach. "That's the 

biggest peach I've ever seen. It looks delicious!"

    The old woman began to cut open the peach, 

when she heard a cry from inside. Suddenly, the 

pit cracked open and out popped a beautiful baby 

boy. The two were so surprised, but also so happy 

as finally they had a son they could call their own. 

Because he came from a peach, they decided to 

name him "Momotaro," or "Little Peachling."

    Momotaro's new mother and father fed him well and 

he began to grow. Momotaro especially liked his 

mother's spinach dumplings, which gave him 

incredible strength. 

One day, Momotaro travelled to the village with his 

father.   While they were buying rice for their dinner, 

he overheard a man talking about three demons that 

were troubling the land. They lived on Devil's 

Island, he said, and would come across the sea to 

wreck the villagers’ homes and steal their food and 

money. 

Momotaro was a very brave boy, and decided at 

once to go to Devil's Island and fight these demons.

His parents were worried but Momotaro was a 

stubborn boy and there was no changing his mind. 

His mother packed him a big bag of her special 

spinach dumplings. 

"Eat these when you need strength," she told him, as 

she kissed him on the cheek.   Momotaro took the 

dumplings from his mother and waved goodbye. 

    As Momotaro was walking along the path 

towards the sea, he came across a dog. The dog 

could smell that Momotaro had some delicious 

food.

    "Won't you please share some of your spinach 

dumplings with me?” asked the dog.

    Momotaro was a generous boy and gave the dog 

a dumpling, which the dog gulped down happily.  

The dog offered to carry Momotaro's bag for a 

while, and so the two walked along with him 

towards the sea.

    On the way, Momotaro and the dog had to climb a 

mountain pass on their way. As they neared the top 

of the mountain, they met a monkey.   The very 

clever monkey knew there was food in the bag that 

the dog was carrying. 

    "Won't you please share some of your food with 

me?” asked the monkey.

    Momotaro gave the monkey a dumpling, which the 

he gladly chewed on. The monkey decided to join 

Momotaro and the dog on their journey to Devil’s 

Island.

    As Momotaro, the dog and the monkey came down 

the mountain they stopped to rest, and there they 

saw a beautiful pheasant flying overhead. The bird 

soon landed on a nearby tree, and could see that 

Momotaro had some delicious food.

    "Won't you please share some of your dumplings 

with me?" asked the pheasant.

    Momotaro gave the bird one of his dumplings, 

which he pecked at with glee. Upon finishing the 

dumpling, the three asked the pheasant if he would 

like to join them in their quest, which he did.

You've previewed 23 of 36 pages.

To read more: