Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Book Review: The Paper Bag Princess

Yay I made it to day 2!  Thank you for all of you that have started following and have come to look--it does amazing things to one's ego when the stats tell you that people have actually come and read!  I hope it stays interesting.

One of the things that you will learn very quickly from this blog is about my religion. Since this blog will be a lot about my life, and my religion is very important in my life--it is a bit unavoidable. I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as Mormons. One of my favorite opportunities being a member of this Church is working with the teenagers--specifically the junior high/high school girls. They are so much fun and we get together every Wednesday and do fun stuff.  We talk about the cute boys they see, the annoying homework, the pressures that they face being teenagers in this society, etc. Tonight was no exception.

I had never read this book before, but one of my fellow adult leaders read this to the girls tonight and I saw such a great teaching moment for school teachers but also parents as well!!  So here comes my first book review! Hopefully they all won't have this long of an intro ;)

File:The Paper Bag Princess.jpg

Title: The Paper-Bag Princess
Author: Robert N. Munsch     Illustrator: Michael Martchenko
Genre: Picture Book
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (For an explanation of star ratings go here)

Summary: This cute book follows the life of a princess Elizabeth who has found her one true love: Prince Ronald.  Problem is a dragon comes, destroys their castle with his fire breath, and runs off with Ronald.  Elizabeth goes to follow her future husband, but she doesn't have any clothes since the dragon burned them all.  All she can find is a paper-bag to wear.  She goes on a long journey, tricks the dragon into falling asleep, and goes in to rescue Arnold.  He takes one look at her and says that she smells awful, is dirty, and really needs to go put real clothes on so that she will look like a princess.  To which Elizabeth responds:

“Ronald,” said Elizabeth, “your clothes are really pretty and your hair is all neat. You look like a real prince, but you are a bum.” They didn’t get married after all. 

What Did I Love: I loved that last line--because he really was a bum.  And that was the point that we brought up with the girls.  It doesn't matter who the guy is, if all he cares about is looks--then what's the point?!  We had a great discussion about the values that Elizabeth showed and the values that they as young women could show and gain throughout life as they prepare to meet their "prince".

What Did I Hate: Nothing :) It was really cute...I am actually considering buying it on Amazon...I can get it used for like a penny.  Too bad I have to pay waay more than that on shipping

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