Raw JSON
{
"kind": "story",
"canonical_url": "https://ririro.com/kids-books/the-johnny-cake/",
"slug": "the-johnny-cake",
"story_dirname": "kids-books--the-johnny-cake",
"section_slug": "kids-books",
"title": "The Johnny Cake",
"author": null,
"publisher_label": "Ririro",
"source_version": "unknown",
"content_type": "chapter_book",
"language": "en",
"summary": "The Johnny Cake is a short story following young Ava, who sets out to make her grandmother a simple breakfast but finds every step of the way blocked by a new obstacle. The meal barrel is empty, the shopkeeper has none, the miller sends her to a cornfield, and the cornfield hasn't even been planted yet. Each setback leads Ava further from home and deeper into a chain of tasks — ploughing, sowing, growing, and grinding — before she can finally return with what she needs.",
"body": [
"Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Ava. She stood by her grandmother’s bedside and asked her what she wanted for breakfast. “You shall get me a johnny cake; quickly go make it, in one minute mix, and in two minutes bake it,” her grandmother replied.",
"Ava went to the closet to see if there was any meal in the barrel, but it was empty. She ran to the shop to buy some meal, but the shopkeeper told her he had none and that she had to go to the miller. She rushed to the miller, but he too had no meal to give her. The miller told her to go to the cornfield just over the hill and see if she could find some corn.",
"When Ava arrived at the cornfield, she saw that there was no corn growing there because no corn had been planted. She asked the farmer to sow some grain, but he laughed and told her that he could not plant until the earth had been ploughed. He suggested she run to the ploughman and bring him with speed.",
"Ava ran to the ploughman and he ploughed the land and the farmer sowed the seed. The sun shone brightly and soon the corn grew. It was then ground at the mill and Ava brought it to her grandmother. Her grandmother then said to her “You shall get me a johnny cake, quickly go make it, in one minute mix, and in two minutes bake it.”",
"Ava, with the freshly ground meal in hand, was finally able to make the johnny cake for her grandmother, just as she had been asked to do in the first place. A result of her hard work and persistence, despite all the obstacles she had to face.",
"Emilie Poulsson was an American author and educator best known for her contributions to children's literature in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She had a gift for weaving simple moral lessons into engaging, rhythmic narratives suited to young readers. The Johnny Cake reflects her characteristic style, using a cumulative, quest-driven structure to celebrate persistence and the satisfaction of honest effort."
],
"body_text": "Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Ava. She stood by her grandmother’s bedside and asked her what she wanted for breakfast. “You shall get me a johnny cake; quickly go make it, in one minute mix, and in two minutes bake it,” her grandmother replied.\n\nAva went to the closet to see if there was any meal in the barrel, but it was empty. She ran to the shop to buy some meal, but the shopkeeper told her he had none and that she had to go to the miller. She rushed to the miller, but he too had no meal to give her. The miller told her to go to the cornfield just over the hill and see if she could find some corn.\n\nWhen Ava arrived at the cornfield, she saw that there was no corn growing there because no corn had been planted. She asked the farmer to sow some grain, but he laughed and told her that he could not plant until the earth had been ploughed. He suggested she run to the ploughman and bring him with speed.\n\nAva ran to the ploughman and he ploughed the land and the farmer sowed the seed. The sun shone brightly and soon the corn grew. It was then ground at the mill and Ava brought it to her grandmother. Her grandmother then said to her “You shall get me a johnny cake, quickly go make it, in one minute mix, and in two minutes bake it.”\n\nAva, with the freshly ground meal in hand, was finally able to make the johnny cake for her grandmother, just as she had been asked to do in the first place. A result of her hard work and persistence, despite all the obstacles she had to face.\n\nEmilie Poulsson was an American author and educator best known for her contributions to children's literature in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She had a gift for weaving simple moral lessons into engaging, rhythmic narratives suited to young readers. The Johnny Cake reflects her characteristic style, using a cumulative, quest-driven structure to celebrate persistence and the satisfaction of honest effort.",
"theme_slugs": [],
"listing_memberships": [
{
"type": "author",
"slug": "emilie-poulsson",
"title": "Emilie Poulsson",
"url": "https://ririro.com/author/emilie-poulsson/"
}
],
"reading_meta": {
"reading_level": null,
"age_band": null,
"read_time": null
},
"media": {
"has_audio": true,
"has_pdf": true,
"has_images": true
},
"asset_refs": {
"pdf_urls": [
"https://ririro.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/The-Johnny-Cake_CompressPdf_1_2_CompressPdf.pdf"
],
"audio_urls": [
"https://widget.spreaker.com/player/?episode_id=65654499&theme=dark&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true"
],
"image_urls": [
"https://ririro.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/the-johnny-cake-2.png"
]
},
"breadcrumbs": [
"The Johnny Cake"
],
"scraped_at": "2026-05-07T12:43:39+00:00"
}