The Paper Bag Princess: The Story Behind the Story ~ by Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko, 2005 (25th anniversary edition), 9/10"It's amazing to me now that the book is read by so many people. It's even studied in feminist literature classes!"Yes, people love The Paper Bag Princess! I loved it when I first read it in 2010 after Helen of Helen's Book Blog told me about it in a comment:
"I love children's books that go against the norm. One of my favorites is The Paper Bag Princess where the princess is the strong one and doesn't marry the goofy prince in the end."
It's true. Princess Elizabeth is a spunky little girl. The dragon smashed her castle, burned all her clothes, and carried off Prince Ronald (p. 28). The only thing the princess could find to wear was a paper bag, yet she bravely went after the dragon. Was Ronald grateful when she rescued him? Oh, no! He said (pp. 46-48):"Elizabeth, you are a mess! You smell like ashes, your hair is all tangled and you are wearing a dirty old paper bag. Come back when you are dressed like a real princess."Girls are more than the clothes they wear, and that's why the original book is studied in college classes on feminist literature. Bob Munsch, the author, says (p. 51):
"Ronald," said Elizabeth, "your clothes are really pretty and your hair is very neat. You look like a real prince, but you are a bum."
They didn't get married after all.
"There are no princes but there are a lot of bums, and you don't want to marry one."The same page (p. 51) of this "story behind the story" reports:
"The story has now crossed generations — those who loved the book as kids are reading it to their own children — and has even traveled around the world. Not bad for a girl dressed only in paper."
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| Best illustration, where she ducks but doesn't run away. (Click to enlarge.) |
"Our young princess's handling of pesky dragons and arrogant royalty inspired my students and me. Self-respect and confidence in one's self are her gifts to girls and boys alike."I rate this book about the book 9 of 10, because it's fun to read. And I'll give the author the final word here (quoting from p. 62):
"A paper bagI agree, especially since it has now been seven more years (32 so far) and is still attracting readers like me.
Does not last long,
It burns or blows away.
But now that mine is 25,
I think it's here to stay."
Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana's life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, longtime New Orleans residents Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun are cast into an unthinkable struggle with forces beyond wind and water. In this startling and deeply humane work of nonfiction, readers will witness our country's worst natural disaster through new eyes, encountering all the hope and contradiction of a unique moment in American history.
One summer day, Opal goes into a supermarket and comes out with a scraggly dog that she names Winn-Dixie. Because of Winn-Dixie, her preacher father finally tells her ten things about her absentee mother, and Opal makes lots of unusual friends in her quirky Florida town. And because of Winn-Dixie, Opal grows to learn that friendship — and forgiveness — can sneak up on you like a sudden storm.
Robert Munsch's tale — of a dragon, a princess named Elizabeth, and the bum of a prince she rescues — was first published in 1980. It was an instant success and has since sold millions of copies in dozens of languages all over the world. Readers will discover how Munsch — once on a path to becoming a priest — became one of the most famous children's authors of all time. They'll learn how an extra space on a gallery wall landed Martchenko his first, and most legendary, children's book gig ever. And they'll meet the real Elizabeth and see what she's up to today. Never-before published sketches and paintings take readers through the process of the book's creation.
Junior is a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. This story, based on the author's own experiences, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he thought he was destined to live. Won the 2007 National Book Award for Young People's Literature.
Henrietta Lacks, a poor Southern tobacco farmer, was buried in an unmarked grave sixty years ago. Yet her cells — taken without her knowledge — became one of the most important tools in medical research. Known to science as HeLa, the first "immortal" human cells grown in culture are still alive today, and have been bought and sold by the millions. Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey from the "colored" ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to East Baltimore today, where Henrietta's family struggles with her legacy.
Library Loot is a weekly meme co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you would like to share a list of the loot you brought home from the library, Claire has the Mister Linky again this week.
Princess Elizabeth is to marry Prince Ronald when a dragon attacks the castle and kidnaps Ronald. In resourceful and humorous fashion, Elizabeth finds the dragon and rescues Ronald -- who is less than pleased at her un-princess-like appearance.Prince Ronald looks snobbishly conceited on the very first page. When "a dragon smashed her castle, burned all her clothes with his fiery breath, and carried off Prince Ronald," the prince is shown being carried away on the dragon's talon, upside down, peering at the reader between his dangling legs -- certainly not a time to be conceited. The princess is shown naked, her clothes burned away, though puffy clouds discreetly cover certain parts of her. Finding nothing unconsumed by the dragon's fiery breath, Princess Elizabeth dresses in a paper bag and sets out.
Here's one of my favorite illustrations from the middle of the book. Princess Elizabeth confronts the dragon, who burns up whole forests with his fiery breath. The brave little princess flinches, but she doesn't run away. Ronna of Renegade Conversations shared another illustration, showing the defeated dragon and Prince Ronald behind a barred window."Elizabeth, you are a mess! You smell like ashes, your hair is all tangled and you are wearing a dirty old paper bag. Come back when you are dressed like a real princess."
"Ronald," said Elizabeth, "your clothes are really pretty and your hair is very neat. You look like a real prince, but you are a bum."
They didn't get married after all.
The final page shows her dancing off into the sunset, which is almost the color of the dragon's fiery breath (compare this to her silhouette on the Classic Munsch seal on the cover, above). Rated: 9 of 10, an excellent book for smart little princesses.
Kite Flying, a children's book written and illustrated by Grace Lin, celebrates the Chinese tradition of kite making and kite flying. In it, a young girl describes in simple language how her family builds a dragon kite together. The different shapes have different meanings. Having been born in the year of the dragon, I was delighted to learn that a dragon kite represents wisdom. I especially like those colorful whiskers added to the dragon. See them streaming in the wind?
"Every night the stars filled the sky like snowflakes falling on black stone and then melted away as the sun mounted" (p. 256).China becomes a magical place as we follow a girl named Minli on a journey to change her family's fortune. The opening words of the book show us an unappealing place.
"Far away from here, following the Jade River, there was once a black mountain that cut into the sky like a jagged piece of rough metal. The villagers called it Fruitless Mountain because nothing grew on it and birds and animals did not rest there. Crowded in the corner of where Fruitless Mountain and the Jade River met was a village that was a shade of faded brown. This was because the land around the village was hard and poor" (p. 1).Minli and her family are introduced on the next page.
"One of the houses in his village was so small that its wood boards, held together by the roof, made one think of a bunch of matches tied with a piece of twine. Inside, there was barely enough room for three people to sit around the table -- which was lucky because only three people lived there. One of them was a young girl called Minli" (p. 2).And now I'll share a taste of the visual art Grace Lin gives us. I discovered this sequence of images -- seeing the place become the sketch and then, when painted, the final illustration of the imperial garden (p. 134) -- at the Paper Tiger Blog. There you can read an interview with Grace Lin, who shared her artistic process.
The Story of Fruitless Mountain (p. 4)My favorite picture (found on p. 279) is shown below. Isn't it beautiful? You'll have to read the book to know what it depicts. My rating of the book is 9 of 10.
The Story of the Old Man of the Moon (p. 18)
The Story of the Dragon (p. 51)
The Story of the Goldfish Man (p. 62)
The Story of the Paper of Happiness (p. 81)
The Story of the Dragon Gate (p. 92)
The Story of the Buffalo Boy's Friend (p. 105)
The Unknown Part of the Story of the Old Man of the Moon (p. 136)
A String of Destiny (p. 147)
The Story the Girl Told the Green Tiger (p. 169)
The Story of the Village of the Moon Rain (p. 184)
The Story of the Green Tiger and the Tea (p. 195)
The Story of Da-A-Fu's Ancestors (p. 210)
(Da-Fu and A-Fu are twins; together they are called Da-A-Fu, much as we might say "the twins.")The Story of the Dragon's Pearl (p. 225)
The Story of Wu Kang (p. 239)
The Story That Ma Told (p. 252)
