Rumpelstiltsken

Children's Literature - Beverley Fahey

Adhering closely to the Grimm version of this familiar tale, this is a straightforward retelling of the story about the miller's daughter who must find a way to spin straw into gold because of the boasts of her father and the greed of the king. Title character Rumpelstiltskin is perfectly impish with his clothes of lime green, his flowing white beard, and his elongated nose. Watts has chosen to depict her king as young and quite handsome, thus illustrating that greed can come in any guise. The hapless miller's daughter shows a range of emotions from comely shy maiden to distraught spinner to smug revealer of the imp's true name. The pen-and-ink and watercolor illustrations capture the interior of a medieval castle and its inhabitants with a delicacy that belies the sturdy tale. With so many renditions of this story available and Zelinsky's version (Dutton, 1997) serving as the benchmark, this may be a supplemental purchase at best. Reviewer: Beverley Fahey