Fuse 8 n’ Kate: The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch, ill. Michael Martchenko

I try to talk a little less loudly in this episode since I feel like, in my excitement, I’ve been blowing out the speaker systems. So I found a nice calm little book and discussed it in a nice calm little way. Fear not, though. There is PLENTY to pick apart. The fact that a Dude In Distress can be simplified to simply “The D.I.D.” Who you would cast as the dragon in the movie of this book (which, let’s admit it, it’s a little weird that it HASN’T been turned into an animated full-length feature film yet)? And how exactly do you pronounce “Munsch”? All will be made clear.

Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or your preferred method of podcast selection.

Show Notes:

– Here is the particular compendium that we were working off of this time around. Useful book to find on a library’s shelves, I must say.

– Kudos to Mr. Munsch for including all kinds of wonderful information for each of his books on his website. With that in mind, here’s his page for The Paper Bag Princess.

– I think we had the image of the princess punching Ronald in the nose in an early draft of Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children’s Literature.

– Separated at birth? Ronald and the brother from William’s Doll.

– “He has the nicest sense of humor.”

– Just a whole flurry of horse’s bones. What is the collective noun for horse bones, by the way? I’m going with “flurry”.

– “Puff the Magic Dragon”.  Sheesh. Her words. Not mine.

– The dragon, doing his best inspecting-my-nails Bugs Bunny imitation. Is there a term for this action? I associate it with Warner Brothers more than anything else.

– I dunno. I think I kind of want to see the version of this where the princess takes Ronald’s clothes when he criticizes her.

– I know that Kate’s usually the one who gets to choose the tattoo, but this week this is my tattoo. I know I said I’d do her crown, but this is better.

–  . . . . EXCEPT . . . . fool that I am, I never noticed that Annick Press’s logo was this VERY image!!

– Here, by the way, is a tattoo that someone else got.

– This is the great school photography project photograph that I love so very very much.

– It comes in at #86 on the Top 100 Picture Book polls.

– I quote from Tales for Little Rebels. Can’t help but always recommend this book. It was ahead of its time when it first came out.

– Here is what The Toast had to say about The Paper Bag Princess.

– Now, here is the opening to the Canadian children’s show Bunch of Munsch. Pause, if only for a moment, and imagine if America ever did this for a living American children’s author. I’m going to say it. I’m a little jealous.

And here is their version of The Paper Bag Princess. I do not necessarily recommend that you watch, however. Not unless you were hoping for some really terrible late 80s/early 90s pseudo-rap.

– I really do want to compliment Leda on coming up with the world’s greatest elephant villain in a children’s book. She’s not wrong. It’s in The Elephant Who Like to Smash Small Cars.

– And finally, here’s the podcast I love so much: Stuff You Missed in History Class. And the episodes I particularly call out is Unearthed: Part One and Unearthed: Part Two.

Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate