By: Hans Christian Anderson
The Princess and the Pea is about a prince who travels around the world in order to find a princess he can make his wife. However, every princess that the prince meets has something wrong with her. The prince then returns home without a suitable wife. One night it was raining, and windy but there was a knock on the door. The king answers the door where there is a young woman standing at claiming to be a princess. The queen was not convinced though. The woman was offered a bed for the night where the queen placed a single pea underneath 20 mattresses and 20 feather beds. When the woman woke the next morning she was asked how she slept. The woman responded that she slept terribly because there was something underneath her mattress. The queen was amazed because only a true princess would have such sensitive skin to be able to feel a single pea through all those mattresses.
Genre/Theme
This children's book is a fairytale that was written back in 1835. The story focuses on the princes quest in order to find a wife and the evilness the queen had to rely on trickery in order to find out if the woman was a true princess. The illustrations in the book though have pale colors reflecting the time the book was written in. The illustrations also helped tell the story because while reading the story you were able to see what was happening through the illustrations so it was not just through imagination.
Discussion Questions
1. What do you think the prince was looking for in a princess?
2. Why do you think the woman showed up at the door the night of the storm?
3. Why do you think the queen was in disbelief of the woman's story?
4. Do you think the woman could really feel the pea through all those mattresses and beds?
Activity
Each student in the class would receive a small flannel throw blanket to place on the floor. As a class we would place 20+ blankets on the floor. After all blankets are placed on the floor a small pom pom ball would be placed underneath. The children would then be able to come up one by one to sit on top of the pile of blankets. The children would be asked at the very end if they are able to feel the pom pom ball through the pile of blankets. After each child has had a chance to sit on the blankets they would have to go back to their seats and draw a picture of themselves sitting on the pile of blankets.
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