Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale

Genre VI

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hale, Shannon and Dean. Ill. By Nathan Hale. 2008. Rapunzel’s Revenge. New York. Bloomsbury. ISBN: 9781599902883.

PLOT SUMMARY
Little Rapunzel lives in a beautiful villa with kind servants and her stern mother. On her twelfth birthday she decides to disobey orders to stay within the villa’s walls. She discovers enslaved peasants working mines of a desolate land. One of the slaves is her real mother. When the evil woman who has been raising her finds out that Rapunzel has disobeyed her, she locks her inside a hollow tree in a distant land. Four years later, she uses her hair that has grown to exaggerated lengths, to escape in the hopes of freeing her long lost mother. Along the way, Rapunzel encounters a world of bullies, liars and thieves. She also discovers that her true strength is not in her hair but is instead in her honest, compassionate and witty demeanor.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
The authors have taken an old tale and convincingly spun an original twist into its very core. The story is clever, amusing and full of sarcasm. I enjoyed both the originality and the traditional aspects of the narrative. However, I found the format difficult to follow and the tale tended to wonder and even dropped off in the middle. Once I pushed through the many events that occurred along Rapunzel’s journey, I found the ending satisfying. The dialogue is a strange mixture of proper verbiage and an old west style of speech. The authors only develop two characters beyond a simple introduction. Both Rapunzel and her friend Jack, reveal information from their pasts and motivations behind their decisions. However, none of the characters are all that relatable or complicated. The disjointed style is hard to enjoy yet the theme clearly stands out as belief in one’s self is a great strength to possess. The illustrator has done a fantastic job of bringing the ever changing setting to life. The extravagant villa, the tree prison, the desert canyons, the dried up towns and the lush gardens are all beautifully depicted for readers. Of course the graphic artwork is colorful and expressive but can cause problems with the reader’s fluency and one may become confused.

REVIEWS AND AWARDS

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL: The dialogue is witty, the story is an enticing departure from the original, and the illustrations are magically fun and expressive. Knowing that there are more graphic novels to come from this writing team brings readers their own happily-ever-after.

BOOKLIST: This graphic novel retelling of the fairy-tale classic, set in a swashbuckling Wild West, puts action first and features some serious girl power in its spunky and strong heroine. Hale’s art matches the story well, yielding expressive characters and lending a wonderful sense of place to the fantasy landscape. Rich with humor and excitement, this is an alternate version of a classic that will become a fast favorite of young readers.

CONNECTIONS
*Add this version to a study of fairy tales as it encourages students to “ think outside the box” when writing their own versions of familiar tales.

*Other tales in graphic novel form: GRIMM FAIRYTALES VOL. I by Tedesco Ralph and STORIES OF KING ARTHUR’S KNIGHTS TOLD TO THE CHILDREN by Mary MacGregor

*Other books by Shannon Hale
-CALAMITY JACK ISBN: 1599900766