Children's books.... you never know what you are going to get.
We go to the library, Paul and Anna go crazy picking out books, we get home and I read and read and read to them
Sometimes they are simply AWFUL books that make me think "man, I can do better than that."
Sometimes they are so profound.
Today while we were reading a book Anna had picked out, we came to the end of the fairy tale about a princess, a prince and an evil dragon. The last page surprised me, delighted me and made me laugh out loud.
It read...
"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 story is about this little princess that is to marry this handsome prince but the prince gets stolen away by an evil dragon. The princess fights the dragon to save the prince.
At the get go I was intrigued because you always hear these fairy tales where the helpless princess is watching and waiting for the prince to come to her rescue. It was nice to read of a real WOMAN fighting off dragons to get to her prince.
When the princess finally does rescue the prince he makes this comment
"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."
I felt for the princess when the prince said that comment because I too had tangled hair and smelt like ashes. Well, I smelt like a burnt lawn mower. I had been fighting with the piece of crap mower for several hours before the thing started smoking on me. Roger has been super busy with school and work so I thought I would take over the yard work.... I dragged branches, stacked logs and ATTEMPTED to mow the grass. I finally gave the mower a good kick and said " to hell with you."
So, when I turned the page, expecting the princess to apologize for the way she looked and smelled, I was pleasantly surprised with her response of "YOU ARE A BUM"
Reading that reminded me of how happy I am to be married to a man that understands that he needs to back off and let me FIGHT THE DRAGONS.
or
The piece of crap lawn mower and all the branches from the cut down trees.
Because, in the end, I am happier in tangled hair, sweat soaked clothes, with grass stains ALL OVER my running shoes.
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| showing Anna how fun it is to play with worms! |
(The book is The Paper Bag Princess by Robert N. Munsch)
Love that book - I was trying to remember the title the other day. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI love this! Have you heard the interviews with the woman who wrote Cinderella Ate My Daughter?
ReplyDeleteAlso, the Sarah Bareilles song about fairy tales? I think it is called "The Next Best Thing," pretty funny.
Pushing back against the Princess culture is an important thing to do for our daughters (not that I have one).
The other night before the royal wedding, I was trying to tell Olin what a princess and prince were, saying: "A princess is a girl who is royalty/a prince is a boy who is royalty."
John looked at Olin and said,"And royalty is made up."