Okay, the title may be somewhat misleading. What I mean is I want to celebrate The Path of Names‘ recent nomination for two awards, and the way I want to celebrate it is by giving away a silly retelling of Snow White I did a few years ago, back when I thought it was in my power to keep my eldest daughter from hearing the traditional version of princess stories.
First the awards. I’m super excited to announce that in the past few weeks The Path of Names has been nominated for both the Diamond Willow Award and the Sheila A Egoff Prize in Children’s Literature. The Diamond Willow award is an award where lots of Saskatchewan school children read The Path of Names and (hopefully) vote on it to receive the Diamond Willow. The Sheila A. Egoff Prize is the BC book prize for children’s literature (and so, as far as I know, involves not even one Saskatchewan schoolchild.)
Now for the princess story giveaway.
I have two daughters, and over the last few years I’ve occasionally been called upon to tell the odd princess story. However, as some of you may remember, the traditional princess story is sometimes a little… well … sexist. Lookist. Not too mention just gross. (As in the scene in Snow White where the prince begs the dwarves to let him take home Snow White’s (apparently) dead body. Just because she’s so beautiful.)
When my eldest daughter was younger and at the height of her princess preoccupation, I used to deal with this by simply changing the words of the stories. Then, one day, a few hours before my mother was scheduled to babysit her, I realized my mother would read her the words to the Snow White story. The real words. Where Snow White is appreciated only for her beauty (rather than her juggling skill, as in my version.) Where trees are frightening apparitions (rather than sad creatures who wish Snow White would teach them how to juggle.) Where Snow White cooks and cleans for the dwarves (rather than juggling their cooking implements).
In short, I had to do something. So I jotted down my version of “Snow White The Juggler,” printed it out and pasted it over the words in her story book. From my current vantage point as the overemployed father of three, my main thought looking back, is ‘God, I used to have so much free time.’
In that spirit, I thought other harried parents may find the attached file useful. Feel free to modify it as you wish.
Ari B. Goelman 