Queen Cldn't Bake Gbrd

Twenty-five years ago I read this book to the first graders where I was student teaching and we all loved it. I have been reading it to children (and adults) ever since because it illuminates the truth that we often SEEK relationships to fulfill our needs rather than to take care of them ourselves. This picture book makes it easier to talk about breaking gender stereotypes and becoming the person we were intended to be. It's also a HUGE hit because we always serve warm gingerbread to everyone while a musician visits to play the slide trombone.

This is a wonderful and sophisticated tale about expectations. A king goes looking for the perfect wife: beautiful and wise and can bake gingerbread just the way he likes it. Of course, the perfect wife doesn't exist and as he becomes ready to accept a good enough princess, he runs into various snags. Eventually he will settle for the wise Princess Calliope, but runs into the snag that she is looking for a husband who can play the slide trombone. They compromise and vow to never mention gingerbread or slide trombones again. But of course they do. Eventually they do some soul-searching, realizing that the other married them for being wise and kind and mentioning the forbidden words was neither. Eventually they solve their problem brilliantly, settling it once and forever. This is a must read for anyone getting married. It reinforces the wisdom that each of us is responsible for our own happiness, among other lessons.