Sam's new favorite bedtime story

So, I rummaged through the bookshelf the other night of stories I'd collected while going to college to find a new bedtime story for Sam. Sometimes this backfires on me and I'll realize that the story just is too old for him, or was too long, or wasn't quite as fun as I'd remembered it. Anyway, last night I pulled out The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch. A great story. Basically it is about a princess named Elizabeth who is going to marry a prince named Ronald, who is practically perfect. A dragon comes and burns down her castle and all of her clothes, and carries Ronald off. She looks a mess and has to wear a paper bag because that's all she can find to wear, and she tracks down the dragon. Throughout the whole story, Sam was very intent on the story. He had very wide eyes at the dragon parts, and I started to worry a little bit about nightmares about dragons. (As a side note we had to stop reading We're Going on a Bear Hunt because it cause too many bear dreams). Usually he talks through a lot of the stories, or asks questions... but this time he just listened. Anyway, back to the story... She outwits the dragon... and goes in to get Ronald. Ronald tells her that she looks a mess and to come back when she looks more like a princess. Then Elizabeth says to him, "Ronald, you look like prince, but you are a bum" and they didn't get married after all. Sam burst out laughing. He laughed so hard, his eyes watered up and he couldn't stop laughing. He asked to read it again... and then he came out laughing to tell Michael about it. Then he starts yelling at Katelyn because he wanted to tell her about it (she was asleep and I told him he couldn't wake her up). Today I overheard him telling Katelyn about it. It was Michael's turn with Sam tonight and I could hear from the living room when he must have gotten to that part... Sam laughed just as loud tonight. What a good story... I recommend it to your kids.