Rebecca Boucher, Charger Staff
Novels are wonderful in their own way, but so are other kinds of literature
such as short stories and even children’s books. When kids are growing
up, a great way to teach them a “life lesson” is by reading them a
book , particularly those aimed towards their age group. And yes, teaching kids
positive lessons is extremely important, and being a lazy parent is not an option.
Of course, my experience on that subject is limited.
One of my favorite children’s books is called The Paper Bag Princess.
Elizabeth starts out as a beautiful, rich princess infatuated with her husband-to-be
, Prince Roland. However, a dragon flies in, smashes Elizabeth’s castle,
and carries off Prince Roland. Elizabeth, the strong-willed woman that she is,
decides to chase the dragon and get Prince Roland back. Everything in the castle
has been burned, including all her clothing, so she grabs the only object in
sight - a paper bag.
Elizabeth finally finds the dragon in his cave and confronts him. He refuses to give up Prince Roland, so for the next few days, she tricks and exhausts the dragon (for specifics, check the book) . Once the dragon is officially asleep, Elizabeth runs inside and rescues Prince Ronald. After all her efforts to save Ronald, Elizabeth is still wearing a paper bag and is looking rather dirty. Ronald, however, has been inside the cave and has kept himself clean. The first reaction Ronald has when he sees Elizabeth is to tell her to come back when she is dressed like a real princess.
Elizabeth has not come this far to take crap from Ronald. She saved his life!
The climax of the story is when Elizabeth tells Ronald exactly what she thinks
of him: “Ronald, your clothes are really pretty and your hair is very neat.
You look like a real prince, but you are a bum.” And they certainly didn’t
get married.
Many lessons can be learned from this story. Some of the classics are represented such as going after what you want, not being fooled by nice things, and not taking infatuation to the next level. The most important element of a children’s book, other than the story, though, is the illustrations. The Paper Bag Princess definitely has wonderful illustrations and will remain one of my favorite books of all time.