Rumplestiltskin- A book review for Children's Lit

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Zelinsky, Paul O. 1986. RUMPELSTILTSKIN. New York, NY:  E.P. Dutton. ISBN 0525442650

PLOT SUMMARY

In this traditional retelling of RUMPELSTILTSTKIN, a miller’s daughter is locked in a room and told she will be killed if she does not spin piles of straw into gold.  As she weeps at the impossibility of this task, a small man appears and offers to help her in exchange for a token.  She obliges him with a necklace, and he works his magic and turns all the straw into gold.  Three times the small man comes to help the girl, but the third time she must agree to give him her first born child.  She makes the deal out of desperation, and the third room is magically filled with gold.  As often happens in these tales, the king decides to marry this rich young woman and, a year later, she has her first royal child.  The little man returns for his token, and the mother balks.  He gives her three days to guess his name in exchange for her child.  By the third day, she has come into possession of his name, he rages and disappears, and she lives happily ever after with her child.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

This story is a traditional retelling of a classic tale.  The story contains the rule of three (in the number of times the girl must turn straw into gold and again in the number of days she has to guess Rumplestiltskin’s name), magical elements (a small man who can spin straw into gold and rides on a spoon), and the traditional setting of “Once there was…” The story is well-told and shows clear examples of classic characters in the innocent miller’s daughter and the greedy king.

Zelinsky uses alliteration and onomatopoeia to aid in the oral telling of the story with “he had spun all the straw into gleaming gold” with a “whir! whir! whir!”  He also uses repetition of phrases to support the important points of the story.

The realistic illustrations are beautifully crafted oil paintings. They complement the text of the story by showing exactly what the words describe. Some of the illustrations show not only one scene, but Zelinsky is able to show multiple scenes incorporated into one picture.  For example, at the top of one page the miller is telling his story to the king outside of the castle, and at the bottom of the page, the girl is being led into the first room.  This is wonderful for young children to be able to see the entirety of the story being played out in front of them.

AWARDS AND REVIEWS

*Caldecott Honor Book 1987

* New York Times Book Review:  "Children...love the story for its mystery, and its familiarity. Adults will find that, like most classic fairy tales, this one rewards periodic rethinking."

* School Library Journal : “Zelinsky's smooth retelling and glowing pictures cast the story in a new and beautiful light."  

CONNECTIONS

*Students can read some other retellings of this story and compare them. For example, the fractured fairy tale RUMP: THE TRUE STORY OF RUMPLESTILTSKIN by Liesl Shirtliff.

*Students may read some of Zelinsky’s other tales, such as: RAPUNZEL or HANSEL AND GRETEL.

*The illustrations in this book would be great to use for students to use to creatively write.  They could write the thoughts of a character, an ending that shows where Rumplestiltskin goes, or something entirely different (such as their own fractured fairy tale if they read RUMP also).

Images taken from: https://www.google.com/search?safe=strict&biw=1254&bih=527&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=rumpelstiltskin+zelinsky&oq=rumpelstiltskin+zelinsky&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0j0i8i30k1l2.297330.309736.0.310012.40.32.8.0.0.0.175.3240.17j14.31.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..1.35.2985...0i67k1j0i13k1.0.lHoSnhc5c4M#imgrc=2G1Om-uK4yOfXM: