Illustrators in Training

February 7th, 2012 in Books/Reading, Crafts

We have been reading tales from the Grimm Brothers before bed. The girls chant, “Grimm Brothers, Grimm Brothers, Grimm Brothers!” every night so I don’t forget! Some of the stories are lame, some of them are really weird and some of them are a bit horrifying! But lots of them are great, and when we read The Queen Bee, it was an absolute GEM.

The Queen Bee is about three brothers (two that are bumheads, one that is kind), and while traveling the nice brother keeps the other brothers from hurting an anthill, killing ducks and suffocating bees. The brothers (who also happen to be princes) happen upon a castle that is cursed. They are asked to break the spell by doing a set of tasks. The two older mean brothers can’t complete them on their own and are turned to stone. The last kind brother knows he also can’t do it alone. But then the ants that he helped save come and help him collect the pearls under the moss. The ducks help him by diving to the bottom of the lake and getting the magic key. Lastly, the Queen Bee comes to help the prince figure out which princess was the one who liked to eat honey. He breaks the curse and marries the princess.

Love this little tale. On one day when none of us were sick and I thought the sickies were gone, I let the girls each invite a friend over. We read them the story, split up the scenes on a long piece of butcher paper, broke into teams and illustrated the story. It is fun to do this with kids when they are just drawing what they imagine in their mind — because they have never seen illustrations to this story by anyone else! I had lots of different kinds of supplies out: markers, pastel crayons, regular crayons, watercolor paint and colored pencils.