Steve Johnson

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The Frog Prince continued, by Jon Scieszka

Published April 28, 2014 by Dagmar

frog princeThe beautiful princess kisses the frog.  The frog becomes a prince, and the prince and princess live happily ever after.  Right?  Well, unfortunately, in Jon Scieszka’s fractured fairy tale, the marriage is not one made in heaven.

The Princess is annoyed that the Prince keeps sticking out his tongue and hopping on the furniture. She wishes the Prince would just go out and slay a dragon.  The Prince, upset that the Princess won’t hang out at the pond with him, is miserable.

They need a change.  When the Princess says she wishes the Prince would just turn back into a frog, the Prince has an idea.  He leaves the castle in search of a witch who can turn him back into a frog.  He finds plenty of witches in the woods.  The first wants to cast a nasty spell on him so he won’t wake up Sleeping Beauty, the second wants to feed him a poison apple so he won’t bother Snow White, one invites him into her gingerbread house, the fourth turns him into a carriage.  He escapes from all four witches and sits, lonely, in the dark woods. The Prince realizes that he really belongs at home with the Princess who took a chance and kissed him when he was a frog.  So, the Prince goes home to his worried Princess and kisses her.  They both turn into frogs and live happily ever after.

This is a fun read aloud for older students who will love recognizing familiar fairy tales, Steve Johnson’s creative illustrations and Jon Scieszka’s funny re-imaginining of the Frog Prince.

 

The Lost Boy and the Monster, by Craig Kee Strete

Published May 19, 2013 by Dagmar

lost boyReminiscent of the Lion and the Mouse, this is the tale of a boy who helps others and is then helped by himself.  My students just loved this book and clapped as I finished it.  The monster is creepy and comical and the boy’s good deeds are laudable.

Old Foot Eater is an awful monster who lives in a tree and catches young children by coiling a very sticky rope at the bottom of a tree.  Old Foot Eater particularly likes eating the feet of small children.  A lost boy, who has wandered so long that he’s forgotten his own name, sees a rattlesnake sunning himself on a rock.  Rather than trying to strike at the snake and kill it, the boy acknowledges the snake’s place in the world and lets it be.  As the boy continues wandering, he runs into a scorpion.  He also lets the scorpion live.  Suddenly, the boy walks right into the Old Foot Eater’s trap and is hauled up into the tree by the monster.  Caught and placed into a cooking pot from which he can’t escape, the boy is saved by the rattlesnake who hangs down from the edge and helps the boy escape.  The monster sees the boy escape and chases him.  The scorpion gives him a medicine bag that allows the boy to spread prickly cactus on the ground around the monster, leading to the Monster’s own demise.