The Rumpelstiltskin Problem

Have you ever wondered just what was going on when that odd little man with the long name stepped up and volunteered to spin straw into gold for the miller’s daughter? If you stop and think about it, there are some very peculiar and rather hard-to-explain components to the story.

Vivian Vande Velde has wondered too, and she’s come up with these six alternative versions of the old legend. A bevy of miller’s daughters confront their perilous situation in very different ways — sometimes comic, sometimes scary. Most of the time, it’s the daughter who gets off safely, but sometimes, amazingly, Rumpelstiltskin himself wins the day. And in one tale, it is the king who cleverly escapes a quite unexpected fate.

What happens when you rewrite the rules of a classic fairy tale?
Short Story Collection: Discover six wildly different and inventive versions of the Rumpelstiltskin legend, each one answering the problems of the original in a new way.Humorous Fantasy: Laugh-out-loud stories are mixed with genuinely scary scenarios, where the stakes are always life, death, or a very bad bargain.Multiple Perspectives: It’s not always the miller’s daughter who comes out on top. In these versions, sometimes Rumpelstiltskin himself wins the day—and in one, even the king proves to be the cleverest of all.Middle Grade Fantasy: Perfect for readers ages 10-12 who love clever adventures, witty heroines, and seeing classic stories turned upside down.