martinimade

Once upon a time, Lisa and Adrienne worked for the same alternative newsweekly. Now, both spend their respective lives mining their creative souls and leading hermit-like lives. And so an idea was hatched. Every week, one would send the other a sketch—either in illustration or word form—and the other would make a companion to the sketch. The result would be posted on both their blogs every week, just for grins. Even if the result isn't award-worthy, the exercise makes both minds more nimble. Hopefully.

Today I wound up reading The Frog Prince to two groups of first graders. It went well. (Except for the bit with the puppet, which we shan’t ever mention again.)

At the end of the book, after the frog has turned into the prince and the princess has learned her Very Important Lesson, we talked about selfishness and, naturally, frogs.

“So how many of you have kissed a frog?” I asked.

Every kid made a yucky face. 

“Why not?” I asked. 

Every kid but one looked at me like I was wearing a sweater for a hat for even suggesting such a thing. And then that one kid said, “That only works if you’re a princess.”

Text ©Adrienne Martini; illustration ©Lisa Horstman. Until the end of time. Or something