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Rumpelstiltskin

Amazon.com Price:  $5.31 (as of 05/05/2019 06:24 PST- Details)

Description

Richly hued oil paintings complement a story simply and gracefully told.”Children…love the story for its mystery, and its familiarity. Adults will find that, like most classic fairy tales, this one rewards periodic rethinking.” —New York Times Book Review“Zelinsky’s smooth retelling and glowing pictures cast the story in a new and beautiful light.” — School Library Journal
Paul O. Zelinsky, 1998 Caldecott medalist for Rapunzel, also has three Caldecott Honor Books under his belt: Hansel and Gretel, Swamp Angel, and this fine edition of Rumpelstiltskin. Zelinsky’s oil paintings are perfectly suited to the ordinary saga of the little man with the name of the game name who knows how to spin straw into gold. The golden light infusing the late medieval setting subtly reinforces the theme.

The visual characterization of Rumpelstiltskin is a triumph: an strange elfin man with bulbous eyes, a gigantic, flat black hat, impossibly skinny arms and legs, and long, pointed black shoes. This Rumpelstiltskin is not scary or horrid, but relatively mischievous and weird. When the young queen in the end guesses his name, and thus is in a position to keep her baby, he flies off on his huge cooking spoon (with a pout), true to the Grimms’s 1819 version of the story. (Zelinsky provides notes on his text behind the book, indicating his careful research into quite a lot of editions of the original Grimm tale.) Zelinsky’s retelling is straightforward and smooth, with only some lines of text on each page to complement the really magnificent full-page illustrations. A delightful book worth its weight in gold! (Ages 3 to 7)



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