Rapunzel's Revenge (Rapunzel's Revenge, #1)

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Rapunzel's Revenge (Rapunzel's Revenge #1)

by Shannon Hale (Goodreads Author), Nathan Hale (Goodreads Author) (Illustrator), Dean Hale

3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 · rating details · 7,304 ratings · 1,478 reviews

Once upon a time, in a land you only think you know, lived a little girl and her mother . . . or the woman she thought was her mother.

Every day, when the little girl played in her pretty garden, she grew more curious about what lay on the other side of the garden wall . . . a rather enormous garden wall.

And every year, as she grew older, things seemed weirder and weirder,...more

Hardcover, 144 pages

Published August 5th 2008 by Bloomsbury USA Childrens

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Community Reviews

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Aug 09, 2012 Ronyell rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: action-adventure, drama, fairy-tales-folktales, fantasy, graphic-novels-comics, reviewed-books, remake, ronyell-s-epinions-reviews, summer-100-book-challenge-2010, shannon-hale, books-i-want-to-own, read-in-2010, strong-heroine, young-adult-teen-books, my-blog-reviews

“Rapunzel’s Revenge” is an awesome retelling of the classic Brothers Grimm tale “Rapunzel” by Shannon and Dean Hale along with illustrations by Nathan Hale (no relation). “Rapunzel’s Revenge” is a brilliant tale of adventure and romance that both children and adults will enjoy for centuries!

Shannon and Dean Hale has done a great job with writing their first graphic novel together and they make the story both exciting and dramatic at the same time. Shannon and Dean Hale had brilliantly retold the...more

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Sep 12, 2008 Betsy rated it 4 of 5 stars

A popular novelist may be prone to looking at the whole of their oeuvre. They consider their past works, look to the future, and decide to write a graphic novel. What makes them do this? Is it the potential to reach whole new audiences? Is it the accessibility of the format? The trendiness of it all? Or it is something else? Could it be that graphic novels are the wave of the future? Could be. Certainly they offer an author a whole new way of looking at the literary format. Why an enterprising y...more A popular novelist may be prone to looking at the whole of their oeuvre. They consider their past works, look to the future, and decide to write a graphic novel. What makes them do this? Is it the potential to reach whole new audiences? Is it the accessibility of the format? The trendiness of it all? Or it is something else? Could it be that graphic novels are the wave of the future? Could be. Certainly they offer an author a whole new way of looking at the literary format. Why an enterprising young man or woman – and man, could perhaps even take a fairy tale and do wondrous things with it. You could even, and maybe I’m just talking crazy stuff here, take the fairy tale of Rapunzel, slap it into a pseudo-cowboy/wizardry setting. Add in Newbery-Honor winner Shannon Hale, her husband, and a guy with the same last name who doesn’t happen to be related to either of them, and you have a rip-roaring tale of betrayal, escape, romance, and very long locks. Hypothetically, of course.

First things first. You are all familiar with the story of Rapunzel I assume, yes? Witch takes neighbor’s baby after the husband steals some of the rapunzel plant for his wife to eat. Witch keeps kid up a tower until the child’s hair grows long and she is eventually rescued by a prince. It’s all pretty basic stuff. Well that’s sort of the true story, but not exactly. For most of Rapunzel’s life she’s actually kept in a lovely castle with the woman she thinks is her mother, learning rope tricks from the guards and generally having a good time. One day the girl grows inordinately curious about the tall wall that surrounds her home and so she scales it. Consequently, what she sees from the top causes her to question everything about her life. As punishment for this act of rebelliousness Rapunzel is kept in the hollow of a tall tree where her hair grows at an inordinate rate. Each year her "mother" asks if she’s ready to be forgiven and each year Rapunzel stays the same. When she finally breaks out of her treetop prison she joins forces with a boy named Jack and the two of them set out to break the power of her “mother” and save the hardscrabble land around them.

Rapunzel is one of those fairy tale characters that remain both iconic and relatively unblemished. Disney never did a thing with Rapunzel, after all. When you think of her, you mind may refer to Paul O. Zelinsky’s Caldecott winning picture book or other images of her in literature. From a personal viewpoint, my first reference tends to be the Rapunzel character in Stephen Sondheim’s musical Into the Woods. But where Sondheim played up the mother/daughter aspects of the relationship, Hale n’ Hale are not particularly interested in that take on the story. Here Mother Gothel, as she is known, is a pretty unrepentantly evil character. She bears little affection for the girl she has raised, which I think is a bit of a loss. It would have been nice to see a more complex villain. Someone who can care and love a little girl on the one hand as a mother, and then turn around and crush the spirit of a nation on the other.

That said, the Hales have a good sense of character and personality here. Rapunzel’s spirit is pretty evident, both visually and through her verve and words right from the get go. Heck, the first time you see her she’s hanging off a branch in the garden and falling into a small pond. The Hales avoid the usual tomboy-told-to-act-like-a-pretty-princess storyline that’s been so done and overdone before. Here Rapunzel is brave and curious right from the start, but with a way of communicating that is entirely her own. After all, when she first sees the devastation that surrounds her home of the past nine years her response is “Well I’ll be swigger-jiggered and hung out to dry.”

The cowboy feel and characters in this book are a bit odd, but they work within the context of the tale. It’s certainly a more American take on the Rapunzel story than you’ll usually find in a library. All spurs and lassos and riding bucks. Short of Indian attacks (of which there are blessedly none) all the usual tropes are there.

Nathan Hale was an interesting choice of illustrator for this particular outing. It took me a while to get attuned to his more cartoonish style, I admit. I had seen the work he’d done on his picture books Yellowbelly and Plum Go to School, which employed a mighty realistic take on your average everyday six-year-old monsters. For this book, Hale scales back the complexity (at least until he needs to use it) producing a simpler product. Once you get into it, it kinda works. I liked Hale’s ability to render the multiple uses of extremely long hair during the Rapunzel-grows-up montages. I liked that he was as comfortable presenting a grey desolate wasteland as we was a beautiful ball gown. If I'm not too much mistaken there seemed to be a visual Pippi Longstocking reference going on for much of the book (hey man, I always said she was the original female superhero). And I liked that he ends the book (spoiler alert, for those of you who care) with a very sexy kiss. Very sexy. Or maybe I just like boys in white shirtsleeves.

It’s a hard novel to place, in a way. There really aren’t that many younger reader graphic novels outside of the manga sphere to compare this to. I can’t help but think that it’s going to have to be a hit, though. A Newbery Honor winning author taking familiar fairy tale tropes and then wrapping the whole kerschmozzle in a kick-butt girl package? It’s going to have its fans. My only difficulty as a librarian is in figuring out what to recommend to my patrons when they finish the book and want more of the same. Suggestions on that topic are more than welcome. A fun new book worth taking a gander at.

Ages 10 and up.
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Jan 01, 2009 Eva Mitnick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya, graphic-novels, children, fantasy

Rapunzel doesn’t know there’s anything wrong with her life – a gorgeous villa, plenty of food, servants and guards, a powerful mother named Mother Gothel – until she manages to finally scale the high wall that surrounds her opulent home. Beyond it lies an industrial wasteland, starving workers policed by vicious guards, and… Rapunzel’s real mother, a worker dressed in rags whose baby was taken from her by Mother Gothel. Rapunzel furiously confronts Mother Gothel, who has her taken away and impri...more Rapunzel doesn’t know there’s anything wrong with her life – a gorgeous villa, plenty of food, servants and guards, a powerful mother named Mother Gothel – until she manages to finally scale the high wall that surrounds her opulent home. Beyond it lies an industrial wasteland, starving workers policed by vicious guards, and… Rapunzel’s real mother, a worker dressed in rags whose baby was taken from her by Mother Gothel. Rapunzel furiously confronts Mother Gothel, who has her taken away and imprisoned at the top of the world’s highest tree. After five long years, Mother Gothel’s “growth magic” (the source of her power, as she can not only make things grow but keep them from growing) causes Rapunzel’s hair to grow to extraordinary lengths, allowing her to finally escape her prison.

Rapunzel takes up with a young lad named Jack (who travels with a goose who simply won’t lay an egg, a magic bean, and a number of other surprises) and they have an assortment of excellent adventures, greatly aided by Rapunzel’s hair, which she can use as a lasso or whip to great effect. All’s well that ends well – the intrepid duo rescues Rapunzel’s mom, vanquish Mother Gothel, and fall in love.

This works well as a graphic novel – the derring-do translates well to action-packed panels, as do the goofy visual gags. The setting is a fairy tale Wild West, and the sight of Rapunzel riding a horse with her copious braids coiled at her saddle like an orange lasso is priceless. The illustrations portray the humor of the story wonderfully, showing particular imagination in how folks are clothed.

Humor, both dry and broadly slapstick, bounces along on every page. There is plenty of silly banter between Rapunzel and Jack, and it only gets mushy at the absolute very end. Raging boars, snaggle-toothed and bearded bad guys, a ravening antler-wearing rabbit, and that ever-present goose provide non-stop goofy excitement, and Rapunzel’s hair is so much a part of the story that its eventual fate feels almost tragic.

Anyone who loves fractured fairy tales will dive right into this luscious tale, only wishing it were longer. Readers who enjoyed the graphic novel versions of Coraline and Artemis Fowl should also give this a whirl – boys as well as girls will like it, if they just get past the first few pages.

For readers ages 10 and up.
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Apr 20, 2009 Cara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, fairy-tales

When I first saw this title I hadn't realized that it was a graphic novel. As a rule I tend to avoid them since (at least to me) they don't seem like real books, but since I love Shannon Hale,s work I decided to give it a chance.
I enjoyed it a lot more than what I expected. It is a very unique and cool retelling of Rapunzel's story. It was more like she was a comic book hero (which wasn't bad), I guess what I'm trying to say is that I thought it was pretty cool that she had killer braids. We are...more

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Nov 11, 2012 Jennifer Wardrip rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: trt-posted-reviews

Reviewed by Rebecca Wells for TeensReadToo.com

Once upon a time, in a land very far away, there lived a girl with her mother. Every day as the girl grew and played, she also became more and more curious about the world outside. One day she finally climbed up her wall and discovered that she really knew nothing at all.

And that was when she decided to do something about it.

Think you know Rapunzel? You've never heard it like this!

With a feisty heroine who uses her ridiculously long hair as a weap...more

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Dec 05, 2009 Marian rated it 3 of 5 stars

Cute take. Of all the fairy tale princesses I have thought Rapunzel to be the dimmest--sitting all by herself with two long "ropes" to use for escape. So yeah for Hale empowering Rapunzel to wait for no one and save herself.

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Aug 19, 2008 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Shannon Hale fans! :)

Shelves: fairy-tales, legends

This was cute, laugh out loud, smile n sigh, graphic novel. (meaning basically a comic book the length of a novel... graphic as in pictures!)
I loved the illustrations, especially the expressions on some of the characters faces at times! :) This western tale of a girl with twenty-foot braids, and a boy with a quick sense of humor and a knack for stealing is a clean, fun read!

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Jun 24, 2010 Anners rated it 4 of 5 stars

Rapunzel is no damsel in distress, waiting meekly for a prince to rescue her. Four years ago, Rapunzel discovered that Gothel wasn’t her real mother. Her real mother has been slaving away in the mining camps outside Rapunzel’s palatial home. You see, four years ago, Gothel locked Rapunzel in a hollow tree high above the forest floor for questioning the way the kingdom was run. Her tree-top prison provides only food and shelter, and she’s been wearing the SAME DRESS for FOUR YEARS! Thank goodness...more

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Aug 18, 2008 Becky rated it 5 of 5 stars

Hale, Shannon and Dean. 2008. Rapunzel's Revenge. Illustrated by Nathan Hale.

Rapunzel's Revenge is a graphic novel. A great graphic novel of an empowered and spunky Rapunzel who's on a quest for revenge. Really there are no words for how much fun this one is. It does begin in a familiar way, "Once upon a time, there was a beautiful little girl..." and it is loosely based on the fairy tale...but most of the story is original and fun and wonderful. The book really begins to take off when Rapunzel...more Hale, Shannon and Dean. 2008. Rapunzel's Revenge. Illustrated by Nathan Hale.

Rapunzel's Revenge is a graphic novel. A great graphic novel of an empowered and spunky Rapunzel who's on a quest for revenge. Really there are no words for how much fun this one is. It does begin in a familiar way, "Once upon a time, there was a beautiful little girl..." and it is loosely based on the fairy tale...but most of the story is original and fun and wonderful. The book really begins to take off when Rapunzel rescues herself from the tower. One of the first things she does is meet her "adventuring hero" who would have rescued her...not. Here's how that exchange goes:

Rapunzel: Ow! What in the--
Would-be-hero: Are you all right?
Rapunzel: Oh...am I...am I all right? Well I was until someone shot my new pet pig. I was going to call him Roger.
Would-be-hero: You're welcome! All in a day's work. I'm an adventuring hero.
Rapunzel: Well, It's nice to meet you. It's nice to meet anyone, really. Can you give me directions to--
Would-be-hero: I was getting so bored watching the workers farm my fields all day. So I left behind the civilized comforts of Husker City, following tales of a beautiful maiden trapped in a high tower.
Rapunzel: Oh! That's so noble of you to come all this way to help her.
Would-be-hero: Yes, noble is a good word for me. I can't actually rescue her, of course. The word is she's Mother Gothel's pet and I won't risk crossing the old lady. But I can tell her I'm going to rescue her. She's bound to be too naive to know the difference, and it'll be such fun in the meantime!
Rapunzel: Oh.
Would be hero: So, tiny ragamuffin, as payment for saving you from that rampaging beast, you may point the way to her mystical tower.
Rapunzel: Uh, yeah, the tower is a huge tree just back that way, but...but she's slightly deaf. If you keep calling out, she'll hear you. Eventually.
Would-be-hero: Excellent! And I'm off.
Rapunzel: Remember to yell as loud as you can!
Narrator: This is where the "once upon a time" part ends, with yours truly finally free from that perpendicular prison.

But Rapunzel's story is far from over. And her adventures have just begun. I loved the story. I loved the style. I loved the illustrations.

I loved this one!!!
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Aug 30, 2008 Kathryn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, middle-grade

When Repunzel discovers the woman she has always called mother stole her away from her family as a child and is sucking the life out of the land, she knows that she must use all of her meager skills to return the land to its fertile origins. With the help of her new friend Jack and his crazy goose Goldy, Punzie finds an inner strength and a community ready to come together to take down the most evil witch of all.

This a cute story that mixes the Brothers Grimm with Mother Goose and throws in a t...more

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Jul 23, 2008 Roxanne Hsu Feldman rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2008, 4-6grade, childrensbooks, graphicnovels, fantasy, bestbooks

It did not disappoint! Yeah! I had so much fun reading and looking at the text and the illustrations. Shannon Hale's telling, even with reduced amount of text due to the graphic novel nature of the book, is crisp and humorous, and with certain subtlety that amuses me, the adult reader, and yet not difficult to appreciate for young readers. (I had a 10-year-old girl today reading it and she absolutely loved the book -- then she found out that this is by the same author who gave her the pleasure o...more

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Dec 17, 2008 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read2008, childrens

Adorable!! This graphic novel version of Rapunzel is action packed from start to finish. Rapunzel is a no-nonsense heroine, with a funny (and conveniently handsome) sidekick with his own fairy tale story adding to the mix. Bad guys, monsters, and evil witches, watch out for this girl!

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Nov 18, 2008 Dlora rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: youth, lds-author

Sarah lent me her copy to read. Given her recommendation and that I really like Shannon Hale as an author, I was not surprised that I enjoyed this "comic book." It was extremely creative and fun to read. My great regret is that it was a comic book and therefore short. The characters were well developed but I wanted more of them. The plot was an intriguing blend of fractured fairytales but I wanted more developement. My low rating for this book was because I wanted more. I'm just not satisfied wi...more

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Jan 09, 2012 Katie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-s, fiction, fairy, tales, graphic, novel

I love re-tellings of fairy tales, and when I saw the cover of this graphic novel, I had to read it - what could be better than a braid-whipping Rapunzel decked out like a cowgirl? The story begins with Rapunzel living in a beautiful villa with the woman she always thought was her mother. The villa is surrounded by a towering wall, and Rapunzel has never seen what is on the other side. Her only companions are the guards of the villa, who befriend her and entertain her by teaching her how to thro...more

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Jan 29, 2009 Brandy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009, comics, childrens, for-reviews, teen, adventure

Rapunzel may have gotten locked in the tower, but she's hardly the helpless maiden she's made out to be. With braids long enough to escape on (and some handy training in how to use a lasso), Rapunzel is set to exact revenge on the woman who locked her away. Gothel has been using (and misusing) growth magic to control townspeople all over the land, demanding they pay her high taxes and obey her rules, lest she dry up their land and let them starve. Along the way, Rapunzel meets up with a sticky-f...more

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Jan 04, 2009 Leslie rated it 3 of 5 stars

"Now with a name like the Devil's Armpit, you'd think it'd be a right jolly place. -We didn't sleep much at night."

My first foray into the land of graphic novels was very entertaining. What's not to like about a red-headed chick with a scorpion tale hair braid and a stinging attitude to match it! Throw in a handsome, mysterious sidekick, an evil stepmother, plants and animals with serious growth issues, and you have a modernized version of the classic fairy tale.

Without giving too much away, m...more

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Dec 21, 2008 Karin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novel, folk-fairy-tale-retelling, rapunzel, quirky, young-adult-fiction, juvenile-fiction, gutsy-girls, borrowed-from-the-library

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. In this fantastic graphic novel, Rapunzel takes her destiny into her own hands. When Mother Gothel imprisons her in an isolated tree tower, Rapunzel escapes using her hair (and her lassoing skills) to swing across to a neighboring tree and down – safely – to the ground. She makes her way into town and meets “Jack,” a thief about her own age, who immediately gets her into trouble. Together they face bandits and brigands, plan and execute a daring rescue, and eventually make their way back to the...more

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Dec 01, 2008 Jeremy rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: any fan of Shannon Hale

Recommended to Jeremy by: Sister-in-law Lisa, a birthday gift

Shelves: books-of-2008

Fun book, one of the few graphic novels I've read. The art was ... good but inconsistent. It was never bad, but there were moments when it was obviously hurried. Shannon Hale has worked magic with her other fairy tales, but this one, though fun I reiterate, just didn't ring true to me.

I am maybe too enamored of the marvelously complex Rapunzel/Witch relationship presented in Into The Woods, to be able to accept another viewpoint, but it didn't... feel full. There was no explanation as to what -...more

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Oct 20, 2008 Wendy rated it 2 of 5 stars

So I finally got my reserved copy from the library. This seems to be a popular book, probably because it's written by Shannon Hale. Don't you just love her? I like reading graphic novels, and the pictures were amazing in this one. The artist is really talented. Unfortunately I didn't like the direction the story took, in a more old-timey Western direction instead of traditional fairy tale land. A lot of the jokes in the dialogue seemed forced and I didn't enjoy this book as much as I had hoped.

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Jun 04, 2013 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: classic-adaptations-or-alterations, fairy-tales, graphic-novels-and-manga, young-adult

Rapunzel lives in a large house with servants and nice clothes and the woman she thinks is her mother, but sometimes she has strange dreams where she feels like she has lost something important. She is rather happy until she decides she wants to see what is outside the high wall that surrounds their house. Outside she finds a mine where slaves are worked to death and no one has enough to eat, and a woman who is actually her mother. She is locked in a high tower inside a tree for her disobedience...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Cornerofmadness rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novel, fantasy

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This retelling of Rapunzel’s story was a lot of fun. The cover caught my eye at the library with Rapunzel in a southwest scene, done up like a cowgirl and using her hair as a lasso. The story opens with Rapunzel being raised like a princess by Mother Gothel, who has some kind of green magic (and the story claims that Rapunzel is a type of lettuce. I’m not that up on lettuce so I’m not sure of that but it becomes a running joke). She’s rather neglected, hanging out with the guardsmen who teach he...more This retelling of Rapunzel’s story was a lot of fun. The cover caught my eye at the library with Rapunzel in a southwest scene, done up like a cowgirl and using her hair as a lasso. The story opens with Rapunzel being raised like a princess by Mother Gothel, who has some kind of green magic (and the story claims that Rapunzel is a type of lettuce. I’m not that up on lettuce so I’m not sure of that but it becomes a running joke). She’s rather neglected, hanging out with the guardsmen who teach her how to lasso stuff.

Naturally, Rapunzel finds out she was stolen from her parents because her father broke into Gothel’s garden to get some lettuce for his pregnant wife’s cravings. Rapunzel also sees that Gothel is using her magic to make things grow or wither to pretty much rape the surrounding lands, enslaving the people. She demands her real mother’s freedom and loses her own.

Instead of the traditional tower, Rapunzel is put in a boll on a tree that magically feeds her and Gothel’s magic seems to have an effect on her hair since it’s 25 feet long in under five years. Rapunzel needs no prince charming to save her. She escapes on her own. She does meet Charming but he’s a chauvinistic moron and she deals with him easily.

Later, Rapunzel meets Jack who is something of a thief (and given the Southwest feel, either Mexican or Native American in looks). They team up along with his goose that he won’t let be eaten, Goldy. Jack pretty much embodies all the Jacks in fairy tales. Together they face many adventures as they traverse the country trying to get back to Gothel’s palace to stop her.

It was fun. There is nothing new in the retelling of fairy tales for the modern girl, making the protagonist much more self-sufficient than women would have been during the days of the tales origins. That said, it was fun seeing Rapunzel reimagined that way. However, I didn’t really care for her talking like a cowgirl using all the Lingo Hollywood has told us cowboys use. Being raised as a princess – whatever her start in life was – she probably wouldn’t talk that way but it’s a minor quibble. It was a fun graphic novel.

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Dec 19, 2012 Rebecca rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shannon Hale gets to the heart of the story. Rapunzel has always been kind of horrifying, but we've all gotten numbed to the terror of kidnap and imprisonment through endless iterations of golden locks, gilt towers, and strong-jawed princess.

Hale puts a stop to all that. She pauses, and really SINKS into the meat of this fairy tale, and is able to envision, with her illustrator Nathan Hale, a gobsmackingly wonderful universe. And the same way she was able to expand Goose Girl from a blip of a s...more

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Nov 05, 2012 Courtney rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: odu-libs

Genre: Graphic Novel
Summary: A new twist on the classic tale, Rapunzel. After years of weird occurrences, Rapunzel finally escapes over the garden wall. This is where her adventure begins with the outlaw named Jack.

Critique:
a. The exciting illustrations and how the author keeps the reader engaged in the story.
b. The panels stretch across the page creating movement during action scenes while bringing out emotions in the characters. Rapunzel’s adventure is full of excitement and the movements of t...more

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Sep 07, 2012 Mrs.Charles rated it 5 of 5 stars

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hale, D. & Hale, H. (2008). RAPUNZEL’S REVENGE. Ill. By Nathan Hale. New York, NY: Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781599900704.

PLOT SUMMARY
Shannon and Dean Hale created a hilarious twist on the classic story Rapunzel. In Rapunzel’s revenge there was a young girl who lived with her mother….or the person she thought was her mother. When she finds out the truth, she is locked in a grown creepy tree with a hollowed-out room high up. Years later she manages to escape and we meet her sidekick Jack....more BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hale, D. & Hale, H. (2008). RAPUNZEL’S REVENGE. Ill. By Nathan Hale. New York, NY: Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781599900704.

PLOT SUMMARY
Shannon and Dean Hale created a hilarious twist on the classic story Rapunzel. In Rapunzel’s revenge there was a young girl who lived with her mother….or the person she thought was her mother. When she finds out the truth, she is locked in a grown creepy tree with a hollowed-out room high up. Years later she manages to escape and we meet her sidekick Jack. They gallop through the country landing themselves in one adventure after another as she races to right wrongs and live happily ever after.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Characters – Hale creates a fun and rambunctious character in Rapunzel. We know Rapunzel from the original tale but this one is even better. Throughout the story we follow along with her many outrageous adventures and can’t wait until she frees her true mother, defeats the evil witch, and hopefully falls in love. Her many adventures lead her across the Gothel’s Reach, battling creatures and outrageous villains. Her faithful sidekick Jack is very brave and trustworthy.
Plot – The story leads us through the Wild West on Rapunzel’s quest back to Gothel’s Villa to free her real mother. She has several obstacles that lead her back to her goal and many villians to vanquish.
Setting – The illustrator Nathan Hale (no relation) did a wonderful job setting the scene in the graphic tale. The story takes place in the Wild West in a place ruled by Mother Gothel.
Theme – One theme in Rapunzel’s Revenge is to never give up and heroes. Real heroes don’t try to act like heroes; they simply do what’s right.
Style – Language and clothing throughout the novel fit with the wild west. “Follow their nasty foot prints down yonder” and “Yeeeeeee-Haw! Git! Git!” is some of the wild west lingo sprinkled throughout the tale. There are also a few silent sequences throughout the graphic novel where there is no dialogue or narration. Inference and student improvisation would be good to use here.

REVIEW EXCERPTS
An ALA 2009 Notable Children's Book
A YALSA 2009 Great Graphic Novel for Teens
PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY: "With its can-do heroine, witty dialogue and romantic ending, this graphic novel has something for nearly everybody."
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."

CONNECTIONS
*Good to use with inference, compare & contrast, and making connections.
*Similar books you will enjoy
Hale, D. CALAMITY JACK. ISBN 1599903733
Arnold, J.D. and Koslowski, R. BB WORLD AND THE THREE LPS. ISBN 9781603090292.(less)

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Aug 23, 2012 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novel, middle-grades, summer-2012, young-adult, buy

I liked this fairy tale meets western graphic novel, but I must admit it took me quite awhile to get into it. Once I did, though, I did enjoy it. Rapunzel is taken from her parents by "Mother" Gothel because Rapunzel's father picked some lettuce out of Gothel's garden. Rapunzel grows up in a grand villa with a privileged life, learning lasso tricks from the guards. One day she decides to find out what is on the other side of the incredibly high wall that surrounds the garden. On the other side s...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Dolly rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: children who like graphic novels

Shelves: 2012, childrens, gardens-flowers, graphic-novels, middle-grade

We've been reading different versions of fairy tales and we recently discovered this graphic novel at our local library. It's the first book in the Rapunzel's Revenge series by Shannon Hale, Dean Hale and Nathan Hale. It's a wild west retelling of the classic tale, with some interesting twists, danger and some romance thrown in for good measure.

It was a quick, entertaining read and I enjoyed how the authors incorporated different fairy tales into the one story. I love how spunky and adventurous...more

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Jun 24, 2012 Angie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: children-s-fiction, graphic-novel, magic, fantasy, website, fairy-tales-fractured-fair-tales

Hale and Hale and Hale (yes that is a lot of Hales and not all related) take the Rapunzel tale and spin their own yarn or hair. And their take on this story is a good one. They move Rapunzel to an American West like setting with cowboys and lassos and horses, but the basic tale is still the same. Rapunzel was stolen from her parents as a baby by an evil witch and imprisoned in a tower/castle. She eventually gets free of the tower and with the help of a male companion defeats the witch.

In Rapunz...more

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Apr 09, 2012 Kessia Robinson rated it 1 of 5 stars

This GRAPHIC NOVEL applies a new twist to the Rapunzel tale. in this story, Gothel is a sorceress and tyrant who has taken a world like the old west and turned it into a dictatorship mining town. Rapunzel grows up in Gothel's garden-like mansion, but soon finds out that the rest of the world is this half-destroyed desert, finds out her true mother is still alive and enslaved there, and rebels against Gothel. Gothel locks her up in a tall tree, trying to get her to behave, and eventually abandons...more

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Mar 07, 2012 Alexandra Day rated it 3 of 5 stars

I will admit, this is most likely the first graphic novel I have read in its entirety. And while I cannot say it converted me to be a lover of the genre, I do respect the book type and artistry of the book. The storyline of the book was extremely complex and I found it somewhat hard to follow, but avid lovers of the genre may think it just right. However, I did like the intricacies of the plot and how it wove different fairytales together. For instance, the companion of the main character ended...more

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Feb 19, 2012 Jeretta Hall rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: graphic-novel, juvenile

A very interesting take on the classic fairy tale of Rapunzel. The story followed the classic in that it was a witch and the pregnant mother stole rapunzel lettuce and thus took her child. But I really enjoyed the wild west twist and the incorporation of magic and dictatorship into the plot. Also the addition of the character Jack was fun and provided a great deal of comic relief. Overall, the story was enjoyable and kids will like the new spin on it. Hopefully, it will make the fairy tale a lit...more

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About Shannon Hale

Shannon Hale is the New York Times best-selling author of six young adult novels: the Newbery Honor book Princess Academy, multiple award winner Book of a Thousand Days, and the highly acclaimed Books of Bayern series. She has written three books for adults, including the upcoming Midnight in Austenland (Jan. 2012), companion book to Austenland. She co-wrote the hit graphic novel Rapunzel's Reveng...more

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Books by Shannon Hale

The Goose Girl (The Books of Bayern, #1)

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Trivia About Rapunzel's Revenge

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Quotes from Rapunzel's Revenge

“WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE: RAPUNZEL
For horse thieving, kidnapping, jail breaking, and using her hair in a manner other than nature intended!
REWARD” — 58 people liked it

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Rapunzel's Revenge (Rapunzel's Revenge #1)

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