Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter - Hardcover

Stanley, Diane

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 068814327X ISBN 13: 9780688143275

Publisher: HarperColl, 1997

Synopsis

0nce upon a time a miller's daughter was given an impossible task by a cruel and greedy king. She had to spin straw into gold. And who should show up to help her but an odd little man named Rumpelstiltskin.

According to tradition, the gold-bedazzled king and the miller's daughter are wed. But wait just a minute! This king is definitely not husband material, and there's someone else who is--a hardworking guy who's supportive and nice looking, and who really comes through in a pinch.

Why not marry Rumpelstiltskin?

In Diane Stanley's merry rethinking of the traditional tale, Rumpelstiltskin and the miller's daughter are wed...and then sixteen years later their only daughter is stuck in the same dilemma: She's been locked in a room full of straw to spin for a greedy king! She could call for help from her father, but this fairy-tale heroine has some canny plans of her own.

How Rumpelstiltskin's daughter sets things to rights in the troubled kingdom, while achieving a unique place for herself, makes for a wise and witty tale of kindness and cleverness rewarded. Diane Stanley's wickedly funny text and zesty illustrations put a delightful new spin on a classic fairy tale.

Rumpelstiltskin's daughter may not be able to spin straw into gold, but she is more than a match for a monarch whose greed has blighted an entire kingdom.

2000-2001 Georgia's Picture Storybook Award & Georgia's Children's Book Award Masterlist
01-02 Land of Enchantment Book Award Masterlist (Gr. 3-6)
99-00 Children's Book Award

About this title

About the Author

Diane Stanley is the author and illustrator of beloved books for young readers, including The Silver Bowl, which was named a best book of the year by Kirkus Reviews and Book Links Lasting Connections and was an ALA Booklist Editors' Choice; The Cup and the Crown; The Princess of Cortova; Saving Sky, winner of the Arab American National Museum's Arab American Book Award and a Bank Street College of Education Best Book of the Year; Bella at Midnight, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and an ALA Booklist Editors' Choice; The Mysterious Case of the Allbright Academy; The Mysterious Matter of I. M. Fine; and A Time Apart. She is also well known as the author and illustrator of award-winning picture book biographies.

Ms. Stanley has also written and illustrated numerous picture books, including three creatively reimagined fairy tales: The Giant and the Beanstalk, Goldie and the Three Bears, and Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Reviews

Stanley has spun 24-karat fun.

A feminist revision of Rumpelstiltskin, in which the small man and the miller's daughter marry and raise a daughter, Hope, who finds herself in the same room of straw her mother once faced. She tricks the king out of his selfish ways, by making him provide for his subjects, who then raise golden wheat in the fields, and dress in golden wool knit clothes. The king realizes that generosity brings far more wealth than mere gold can; Hope becomes the country's prime minister. Stanley (Leonardo da Vinci, 1996, etc.) plugs in quips and fast plot maneuvers to keep this tale hopping, but it's the detailed, humorous illustrations that will entice readers, for she slightly alters her familiar style to encompass the comic pitch. Those who like Babette Cole's send- ups will find plenty of giggles in this reworking. (Picture book. 5-8) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Ages 5^-9. Forget passive damsels in distress. Most fractured fairy tales have a feminist spin, and this sequel (sort of) turns Rumpelstiltskin into a witty mix of fable and farce, with a king who's as stupid as he is greedy and a sly 16-year-old damsel, who manages the whole show and saves the world. It turns out that Rumpelstiltskin and the miller's daughter had really escaped the wicked king; they had married and had a daughter. Now at 16, she is captured by the king and ordered, as her mother once was, to spin straw into gold. She could ask her dad for help, but instead she cooks up a plan, outwits the king, and brings food and power to the starving people. She persuades the king that the best way to make gold is not to spin it but to grow it, and she makes him give his gold to the poor farmers--who then grow golden wheat and food. Pictures and story are a clever mix of period and contemporary. Stanley's artistry transforms the Renaissance court of her majestic Leonardo da Vinci (1996) into delicious slapstick here, with the stately palace festooned with grotesque versions of the Mona Lisa and Botticelli's Venus. The king looks like a costumed buffoon in drag, and the ringlets of his giant wig like clusters of coins. In a wonderful climax, the tamed king decides to marry her, but she suggests she become prime minister instead. This tale would make an uproarious readers' theater, with the king like a whining child ("Is it time yet?" "Do I have to?"), his guards gnashing their teeth and clutching their swords, and the smart blond bossing them all. Hazel Rochman

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperColl
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 068814327X
• ISBN 13: 9780688143275
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Stanley Diane
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32