Hayley Krischer’s previous work for The Toast can be found here.
The Paper Bag Princess was first told at the Bay Area Childcare Center in Coos Bay Oregon where I had a job in 1973 and 1974. I had been telling lots and lots of dragon stories. They were all fairly regular dragon stories where the prince saves the princess from the dragon.
One day my wife, who also worked at the daycare center, came to me and said “How come you always have the prince save the princess? Why can’t the princess save the prince?”
Here’s the first thing about children’s author Robert Munsch that you should know. He is like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ted Hughes in that his wife did the creative grunt work for him. But you should also know that Munsch, unlike Hughes and Fitzgerald, is willing to admit this.
The Paper Bag Princess begins with a very typical prince named Ronald and a princess named Elizabeth. “She lived in a castle and had expensive princess clothes,” Munsch writes. When we first meet Elizabeth, she is fawning over Ronald, hearts floating around her head, even though Ronald looks like a blonde version of John McEnroe circa 1977:
Elizabeth is a princess. Okay. Check. At first glance, children might believe this is another book like Pinkalicious, in which a girl turns pink because she ate too many cupcakes, or Fancy Nancy, in which a girl wears “fancy” clothes and uses “fancy” words.
But on the next page, Elizabeth is naked. A dragon smashed her castle, burned up all her clothes, and ran away with her prince.
At this point, one of the other girls in one of those other Pinky books might melt into a puddle of devastation. Not Elizabeth. “Elizabeth decided to chase the dragon and get Ronald back,” Munsch writes.
In many princess books and stories, the plot just happens to the princess. She doesn’t have the opportunity to decide anything. Cinderella is locked in an attic until the Prince can rescue her. Beauty is locked in a house with a Beast until she falls in love. Snow White cleans a dwarf cottage for fun after some vain witch tries to kill her. But on page three of Munsch’s princess tale, Princess Elizabeth takes control of her life. She is fucking pissed. And she is wearing a fucking paper bag because that goddamn dragon destroyed her entire wardrobe.
She marches up to the dragon’s house and bangs on his door. The dragon of this story is also not your typical dragon—he’s sort of cocky, not so aggressive, and actually kind of lazy. “Well, a princess! I love to eat princesses, but I have eaten a whole castle today,” the dragon says, before slamming the door in her face.
Elizabeth doesn’t take no for an answer. She knocks on the door again. It’s a big risk, isn’t it? This little girl in a paper bag up against a fire-breathing dragon.
Elizabeth is unlike other female heroines in children’s books, because she is unashamed and determined in her goal to save Ronald. She confronts the dragon. Elizabeth is, in a way, like Dani, the Mother of Dragons, though Elizabeth is more cunning because she uses the dragon’s own ego against him. She understands the dragon’s sensitive male psyche, and gets him to use up all of his fire until he’s out of smoke. Then she dares the dragon to fly around the world twice in like 30 seconds. Elizabeth plays the dragon, and when she’s done playing him, the dumb, egomaniacal dragon is so tired he falls asleep.
Now Elizabeth can save Ronald! Everything will be right with the world and they’ll live happily ever after.
Except for Ronald.
When Elizabeth rescues him, Ronald is still holding his tennis racquet (because you need to be ready for tennis at all times, even when you’re imprisoned in a dragon’s cave). Ronald, really, is like every man on the Internet. He tells Elizabeth exactly what’s wrong with her despite that she just saved his life—maybe even saved the kingdom.
“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’re dressed like a real princess.”
Ronald is the original troll. But our girl Elizabeth, she doesn’t take that shit.
“Ronald,” she says, “your clothes are really pretty and your hair is very neat. You look like a real prince, but you are a bum.”
And then Munsch blesses us with this, the last line in the book: “They didn’t get married after all.”
The Paper Bag Princess redefines happily-ever-after endings with this message: You shouldn’t marry a douche like Ronald just because you’re expected to.
Tags: books, children’s books, hayley krischer, robert munsch, the paper bag princess
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YES! I read this when I was little and had forgotten about it until now.
Me too! My mom used to read this to me all the tiiimmee!
I adore this book. I never had it read to me when I was little, but I discovered it in college and bought a copy then because it made me so happy.
I need seven copies to send to the child care I used to work at, and I need them immediately.
It’s available in a giant classroom edition book – a favourite with our families.
YES. This was one of the books I remember the most from childhood, because she DOES NOT TAKE HIS SHIT.
I think I need to buy a copy of this for my niece like, yesterday.
Buy it for your niece! I don’t know how old she is, but even if she’s 25, she’ll love it.
My niece will also be getting a copy imminently.
I have no strong feelings about Cinderella myself, but I thought this was a really interesting take on it: https://storify.com/didic/cinderella-survivor
I have seen that going around, and it does not resonate with me, as an abuse survivor or as a feminist. I do not begrudge this person her interpretation, but I don’t think it negates the things that are problematic about Cinderella and similarly heteronormative fairy tales. Stories can have elements that are both problematic and empowering though, and fairy tales are of course constantly being reinvented, so I don’t thing she’s capital-W wrong, I just have trouble looking at it that way. Also the idea that women should be able to go through abuse and suffering but should still be kind and gentle is troubling to me. I guess the key word there is “should.” She’s reading it as “can,” which is important to her, but I have trouble believing that’s the takeaway most people are getting from the Cinderella story.
I dunno, am I getting old and inflexible in my opinions?
I buy this book for every baby shower I’m invited to. I adored it as a small child, and I still think it’s the best picture book there is.
I was in the habit of buying it for every baby girl who was born to friends/family, as their My First Feminist Book, but I have begun to think I should be buying it for all the babies, so that the boys get used to female protagonists from the get-go.
Yes! Plus there’s the lesson “if you’re mean to girls you like, they will go away” which is a lesson many boys could stand to learn from a young age.
And the lesson “do not be rude to people who have just rescued you from dragons.”
Indeed. I was just coming here to post that I read this book to my son so many times that he could practically recite it (and so could I!)
Yep, it’s easily as important for boys as it is girls.
I think Robert Munsch may have visited my kindergarten class? We definitely had a children’s writer visit us, and my memory says it was Robert Munsch, but my memory is kind of fuzzy because I was five. Or maybe six, if I’m wrong about it having been when I was in kindergarten.
He definitely visited my kindergarten class — I think he did that regularly — so I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re right. I remember being so, so excited; he came from a town very close to mine (Guelph, Ontario), so his books were ubiquitous in our school, library, and at least in my home.
I adored this book growing up. Elizabeth is the original crush/idol combo.
I’m also partial to That’s Not My Prince, which teaches little girls the improvisational skills they’ll need to reject men without missing a beat:
Oh man I don’t have kids but I want to buy this and hide it in my bathroom’s magazine rack.
Wow. Not only is this awesome in and of itself, we have the “That’s not my puppy” version of this book, and I am loving that the series creators felt that eh, princes, puppies, it’s all the same thing really.
There’s also a That’s Not My Princess, and That’s Not My Goat, and That’s Not My Goat and That’s Not My Dragon… Fiona Watt is a one trick pony, but I guess it works for her?
Also: That’s Not My Kitten and That’s Not My Pirate.
If someone wants to pay Fiona Watt to churn these out, then good for her.
Plus, it’s about time fluffy-haired boys felt a little body shame.
You’ll be glad to know that, as a fluffy-haired dude, I feel that all the time! It probably ties in to weird mixed-race identity issues. Yay America. I’m still somehow all in favor of knocking that smarmy prince down a peg.
I bet princes are pretty much never told their hair is too fluffy. That’s how we ended up with the Hapsburgs.
“That’s not my prince. His chin is too HORRIFYING.)
I love this book so much.
Also, when you’re 4, there’s pretty much nothing better than a story that ends with your parent narrating the immortal line “you are a bum.”
My niece will cackle with glee and chant that line along with me when we get to that part.
I remember this book very distinctly from when I was a kid. Perfect reading for a budding misandrist, along with New Moon magazine.
I’m happily married to a dude now, but it’s message of “Don’t take shit from men, and they WILL try to make you take it” has been very useful in a life as a woman in science.
New Moooooooooooooon oh my god! I read that magazine for years. And I had the art supplies set!
New Moon was too pricey for my house, but I got hand me down versions and lovvvved them.
NEW MOON WAS DOPE, FULL STOP. Also, Stone Soup? Did anyone else read that?
I did!
!!!
i love Robert Munsch, my brother and i devoured his books as tiny children and The Paperbag Princess is completely charming. Read a copy to every child in your life!
I have always loved this book! How it could come from the same mind as the appalling “Love You Forever” is just life’s rich tapestry, I guess.
You need to give him a pass on that one because he wrote it after his twins were stillborn.
Also, I think people read it wrong. A lot of his stories are about people (not always kids) acting out in bizarre and emotional ways and other people having to handle that. I think his view of human nature is that we’re all kind of irrational and compulsive and self-regulation is difficult. He is not endorsing the mother’s actions in Love You Forever, but sympathizing with the creepy and not always well-hidden impulse to never let your children go, no matter how big they get. She is acting out what parents sometimes want to do and know they can’t.
I did not know about why he wrote the book, thank you. I think what irritated me about the book when I was a kid was that adults read it to me all the time, and I just could not relate to it. I didn’t want to be someone’s baby my whole life, I wanted to grow up and have adventures. As an adult I can see how parents could relate to it, I just don’t know why anyone expected kids to like it. It’s clearly a story for parents in picture book form.
Yeah, I have an aunt who is Professor of Kid’s Lit (and gave THE BEST birthday presents ages 0-16, btw), and she says in her experience adults are the ones who love ‘Love You Forever’ and keep buying it/reading it to children. Children are almost universally creeped out by it. I figure her sample size is big enough to accept it as a good working theory.
Well, there is a whole genre of MY LOVE IS SO BIG icky children’s books. I like The Runaway Bunny which is creepy in a good way, but there are others that are a lot stickier and clearly not for kids.
My favorite Munsch: http://robertmunsch.com/book/murmel-murmel-murmel…
oh my god oh my god OH MY GOD I had forgotten that book but I loved it so much!
It was a bit eerie and a bit strange, and we had it in mini-book form with a whole lot of other now-forgotten books that I would dearly love to find again.
THANKYOU for reminding me of this!!!
YES! I _knew_ there had to be another Murmel Murmel Murmel fan out there! That book was my go-to as a child AND as a childcare-giver.
My grandma had a whole basket of those tiny Munsch books! I also loved “Johnathan Cleaned Up and Then He Heard a Sound” (don’t have your bedroom where there’s a subway stop) and “The Boy in the Drawer” (tiny dirt bag).
My mother is a die-hard catholic but one of the reasons she left the parish she’s been in for 20 years was because the pastor read “I love you forever” every.single.mother’s.day and it made her want to stand up in church and scream.
Yup. My mom gave me a copy as an adult, and I treasure it, knowing that for her, it means “I love you this much, but also more, because I am wililng to let you go”. Hated it as a child.
The really, really sad thing about Love You Forever is he wrote it for two of his babies that were stillborn.
Maybe my relationship with my parents is twisted, because we ALL loved that book. I even liked it as a child. I thought it was totally logical. Sure, you’d break into each other’s houses and watch each other sleeping and hold your parents like they were tiny babies, because THAT’S HOW MUCH YOU LOVE EACH OTHER AND THAT’S WHAT LOVE MEANS.
Every once in a while (who am I kidding, like once a week) it occurs to me that other people probably sang the song differently from the way my grandmother sang it when she read the book.
That freaks me OUT, man.
It was read to me by the grandmother who consistently treated me like a person and not like a child, so I assumed that the mother and son’s affection was mature and equitable until I was old enough to read the words and look at the pictures at the same time.
When I was growing up, my family and I had a cassette tape of Robert Munsch reading his stories. It was The Very Best. His narration of the Paper Bag Princess is especially great – so great, that even years later I had it mostly memorized and would tell it to the kids I babysat or who were in the childcare center I worked at for a while.
I can still hear the way he says “Ronald” with contempt. Totally ruined that name for me. What a great storyteller.
ZOMG you can listen to Munsch reading his stories on his website. He has a fascinating voice. http://robertmunsch.com/book/the-paper-bag-prince…
If he is still doing public readings, I HIGHLY recommend borrowing a small child of your acquaintance to attend one
We had a different cassette tape with other stories being told to live audiences, and it was THE BEST – honestly, the rhythms of his telling are in the cadences of my kids’ responses to some things.
Ours had the one about magic markers, and the skunk who didn’t stink, and the little kid who caught a whale when she went fishing wiht her dad and her dad threw her overboard to catch another fish… What was on your tape?
I don’t recognize any of those stories, but they sound amazing! Our tape had The Paper Bag Princess, Mortimer, and one about a girl who went to an airport with her dad and kept touching buttons she wasn’t supposed to…
Oh and also The Fart (“Don’t be foolish dear, GOOD Canadians like US do not have Farts”)
I don’t know your stories either! Well, except Paper Bag Princess….
it looks like you can listen to him reading the books, which is subtly but definitely different from hiim telling the stories, at the website. All of them!
Angela’s Airplane?
YES!!! I had that! I definitely always hear all his stories in his voice in my head now.
Yes yes yes! I own 2-5 copies of this at any given time. It’s my favorite go-to gift for baby showers.
SEE ALSO those Patricia C. Wrede dragon books <3 <3 <3
‘“Fencing is not proper behavior for a princess,” he told her in the gentle-but-firm tone recommended by the court philosopher.
Cimorene tilted her head to one side. “Why not?”
“It’s … well, it’s simply not done.”
Cimorene considered. “Aren’t I a princess?”
“Yes, of course you are, my dear,” said her father with relief. He had been bracing himself for a storm of tears, which was the way his other daughters reacted to reprimands.
“Well, I fence,” Cimorene said with the air of one delivering an unshakable argument. “So it is too done by a princess.”’
ENCHANTED FOREST CHRONICLES FOREVER.
I have a daughter turning 17 in two weeks who is still working on skills needed to be a dragon’s princess. She did a little fencing, a lot of archery, a tiny amount of horseback riding, a lot of cooking, and math and Latin (for spells) and basic sciences (for potions? I think). Those books are indelible.
Best books ever.
I just finished reading the first of these to my eight year old son who hates all things Princess, but was interested in the dragons. He loved it and we’ll start the next one tomorrow.
This exactly! http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/150739.Dealing…
Yes, the Enchanted Forest Chronicles are the best! They’ve been the perfect antidote for my “Ever After High” obsessed daughter. She gave a Dealing With Dragons book report at school, and we bookmarked the first “knight attempts to rescue princess” scene for her to read aloud. To paraphrase Cimorene, “Nope, no knights needed here. We’re good. Move along please.”
<3 <3 <3 I LOVED Enchanted Forrest Chronicles as a kid! Also partial to Gail Carson Levine’s princess books and novelizations of fairy tales, which had a more independent female spirit than either the originals or the Disney versions.
I loved this book when I was little. “Petronella” was pretty great, too. And “The Wrestling Princess.” And. . .I had a lot of these. Thanks, Mom, for not making me think I had to choose between being a princess and being kick-ass.
Petranella was a real person, the author’s mother-in-law.
Did you ever read “The Story of the Eldest Princess”?
Did you paraphrase this book or have I got a bum copy? Because I bought it for my daughter and read it to her (and my son, who came after the daughter) so many times that I thought I had it memorized. I mean, the gist is here
It is also my go-to 1-2 year old birthday party present. Here! Learn how not to be a/put up with a bum!
I loved this book so much as a kid that my Mom used to call me the paperbag princess. Also I met Robert Munsch at a young writers conference once and he was very nice.
It is also worth noting that the Paper Bag Princess is an EXCELLENT last-minute Halloween costume, regardless of your age – you can just tape yourself into some craft paper and tear your way out at the end of the night, and it has great name recognition because the book is SO AWESOME.
Also, if anyone hits on you, you can tell them that their hair looks very nice, and their clothes look very nice, but they are a BUM!
I ADORE THIS BOOK SO MUCH AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHY. Seriously formative book and it’s one of my standard “buy for all small children of all genders within my vague social circle” books. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
The animated episode of this in Bunch of Munsch is truly delightful. Patricia Rozema also has the rights/is adapting it into a feature film!
My niece is exactly the right age for this right now (4) and she loves the part where Elizabeth calls Ronald a bum, in particular.
Misandrist in the making!
Have never heard of this book before, but now plan on buying it for baby niece!
YES this is obviously my favorite book and I buy it for all new babies of any gender. I can’t wait til my niece is older (she’s only 2)
BRB buying this for the baby shower I’m going to in a few weeks.
Here is a super-cute fanfic sequel!
misandrist princesses + dragons 4eva!
“Ronald, really, is like every man on the Internet.”
TOO ACCURATE.
When I was a kid I had this, and E Nesbit’s Melisande on high rotation. Melisande is about a princess who is cursed with ugliness by an evil fairy who wasn’t invited to her baptism. Two of her three fairy godmothers use their wishgifts to mitigate it, so she’s not ugly, only bald. The third says she’ll save her wish and Melisande can choose what she wants for herself when she’s 16. Shenanigans ensue. She’s sort of kind of rescued by a prince (using maths!) but only after she has saved the kingdom in a variety of ways, and although he comes up with the final plan, she helps execute it. Also the economy of the kingdom is discussed, which is a thing I, a Ravenclaw from birth, always found lacking in feudal fairytales.
This book has been a firm favourite of my sister’s her whole life- so much so that we threw her a Paper Bag Princess themed bridal shower. This was particularly revolutionary as we are Nigerian, and her bridal shower was thrown in Nigeria- for those unaware, in Nigeria, the princess always, always, marries the prince no matter how much of an asshole he is. Her fiance (a dude) was a bit freaked out but in the good way that means he’ll never forget he’s married to a woman who refuses to take crap from men.
I love everything about this.
Did anybody’s 70’s feminist mom buy them the anthology “Tatterhood”? It was a collection of traditional tales that all ended with the girl saving the town, or cutting people out of the crocodile, or outwitting the king….I LOVED IT and I was a teen when I got it. We definitely pull it out and read it at my house (my daughter’s 11 now) often.
Yes! Many of the stories from that are burned into my memory, especially (the version we had) the full-page ink illustration of Janet wrestling Tam Lin-as-a-bear (or another giant beast? I think it was a bear) to free him from the Fairy Queen!
YES! I like to refer to this book as ‘my fist feminism,’ and buy a copy for every new baby in my life (regardless of gender). Also – did anyone ever read “The Ordinary Princess” by M.M. Kaye? Another princess that makes her own decisions.
I think I missed the moral as a child, because I re-wrote an illustrated my own version where they get married at the end – but I am also pretty sure that in my version, she was still wearing the paper bag when they got married.
I had never heard of this book before but I want to read it now. I never had any tales like these growing up, only the traditional ones. It made me mad that the princess never did much, only looked pretty and got rescued. And ones who took things into their own hands a bit (like Ariel) got it wrong and/or got told off.