Fairy Tales Revisited

Diane Stanley writes a sequel to Rumpelstiltskin in Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter. The miller's daughter is now married to Rumpelstiltskin and has a wise daughter. The king is back to his greedy ways and his kingdom is impoverished. The daughter takes him on and tricks him into giving away his gold. Some very nice details in the illustrations including some clever and comical homages to many master painters. Readers will likely find that more was removed from the original tale than was actually added here, including much of the charm.

Virginia Hamilton relates a West Indian version of the little gold spinning man in The Girl Who Spun Gold. Told in simplified colloquial speech patterns of the West Indies this tale too has a greedy king and rich detailed illustrations with shiny gold accents by Leo and Diane Dillon. The patterns in the woven cloth are beautiful and the angry little man explodes in an extravagant display in the end.

An illustrator/writer Kevin O'Malley teams up with two more illustrators, Carol Heyer (princess illustrations) and Scott Goto (motorcycle dude illustrations), to create Once Upon A Cool Motorcycle Dude. With this battle of the sexes, 3rd grade style, the story of a pony loving Barbie-esque Princess Tenderheart is introduced by a little girl. It seems a giant is stealing away her ponies making the poor princess distraught. The story turns from pink and lavender melodrama to black and orange action adventure when voiced by her little boy partner. And in if-you-can't-beat-'em-join-'em spirit the story goes from wacky to over the top volcano-exploding silly...the end. But wait, there's more...

Vande Velde's: The Rumpelstiltskin Problem

For fans of the fairytale rewrite, there is a buffet here from the world of Rumpelstiltskin. Vivian Vande Velde offers six versions of the troll's tale, including one version without any mention of the troll at all, in an attempt to reconcile problems or questions she was left with from the original version. All six versions are different (some opening a few holes of their own), each with different main characters (sometimes the troll, the king, the miller, or the daughter) but each with its own satisfying conclusion. A fun light read.