Rumpelstiltskin
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A miller's daughter is taken to the king's castle. He has heard that she can spin straw into gold and he wants to see if it really is true. Can it be? What do you think? Well it wasn't but the girl had luck and some strange little man appeared and offered his help in return for the girl's necklace. The story repeated itself two more times, but the last time the man wanted the girl's firstborn child. Her life was at stake so she agreed. And after some time she gave birth and the little man reappeared demanding to take the boy. Will the princess manage to save her child or her lies will cost her newborn's life?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This new rendition of the Grimm classic comes up short when compared to Paul Zelinsky's Caldecott Honor version. The retelling, in an odd mix of formal and familiar tones, downplays the story's essential magic, mystery and suspense. Spirin's ( Once There Was a Tree ; The Fool and the Fish ) artistic interpretation is not quite up to his usual level of excellence here--many of the book's pages feature surprisingly bare scenes of characters standing about talking to one another. Even the climactic scene in which Rumpelstiltskin unwittingly reveals his name is related entirely through Sage's exposition rather than Spirin's art (Zelinsky's interpretation of this same scene is an eerie, full-page masterpiece). Rumpelstiltskin himself, as portrayed here, is not a frightening or even odd creature; he is merely a very short, well-dressed man. Though Spirin's paintings of costumes and courtly splendor are, as always, elegant, Rumpelstiltskin is a tale that demands drama and flair. Ages 4-8.
