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Spinners

by Donna Jo Napoli (Goodreads Author), Richard Tchen

3.45 of 5 stars 3.45 · rating details · 1,654 ratings · 101 reviews

This is the story of two spinners. The first honed his craft at a stolen wheel, crippling his leg, turning a room full of straw into a glittering dress for his beloved -- and losing her. The second steals moments to teach herself. Saskia is her name, and she grows up to be a master spinner. Nothing is beyond her -- until she, too, must spin straw into gold. And it is then...more

Paperback, 197 pages

Published February 19th 2001 by Puffin (first published August 1st 1999)

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Jun 15, 2010 Anki rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: status—borrowed, fantasy

I expected something...different than I got with this book. I enjoyed the descriptions of the various yarns Saskia creates, and I felt that the authors did a good amount of research regarding spinning. I also found some of the twists they put into the story to be interesting. However, there were a few things that just didn't work for me.

I am not fond of the third person present tense as a point of view for literature in general. While it can be done well, it usually feels stilted and awkward. It...more

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Jan 01, 2012 Karin rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fairytale, folk-fairy-tale-retelling, rumplestiltskin, young-adult-fiction, borrowed-from-the-library

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Ever wonder how Rumplestiltskin got his name? According to this retelling of the Rumplestiltskin tale, he started out as a simple tailor – in love with a beautiful young woman (a spinster) who would have been his wife, save for her father’s greed. When the young tailor asks for her hand in marriage, her father demands a gown of gold cloth. The tailor, obsessed with making good on his boast, wrests a spinning wheel away from an old woman and manages to spin straw into gold, but in the process los...more Ever wonder how Rumplestiltskin got his name? According to this retelling of the Rumplestiltskin tale, he started out as a simple tailor – in love with a beautiful young woman (a spinster) who would have been his wife, save for her father’s greed. When the young tailor asks for her hand in marriage, her father demands a gown of gold cloth. The tailor, obsessed with making good on his boast, wrests a spinning wheel away from an old woman and manages to spin straw into gold, but in the process loses the use of one of his legs and becomes a horrible, withered, crippled thing. The young woman’s love for him begins to fade, and when he presents himself to her father a second time, his suit is refused. Still, he takes some consolation in the fact that the child the young woman carries in her womb is his, and not her husband’s. When they meet upon the road some months later and she sees what he has become, she calls him Rumplestiltskin.

Rumplestiltskin spends his days wandering, traveling from town to town in search of a home. People are uneasy in his company, but occasionally some family takes him in, in exchange for his spinning or weaving or tailoring skills. He keeps his spinning wheel with him always. And during this time, his daughter, Saskia – raised by the miller – becomes a rather talented spinster herself. The miller is a terrible drunkard, and when he stops working completely and lets his drink take him, Saskia uses her spinning to make a living for them. Her yarns are the finest in the land – save , possibly, Rumplestiltskin’s.

Rumplestiltskin returns to the village of his birth and finds that no one recognizes him. His yarn, however, is so fine that it comes to the attention of the King. The King’s servant, Elske, sets Rumplestiltskin up in a secluded shack in the forest so that he can spin for the King. One day Elske brings Rumplestiltskin skeins of yarn that are as fine or finer than what he makes, and he learns that he has a daughter. He is reluctant to meet her, so he arranges for an exchange of spinning wheels. Saskia is reluctant to trade, but her father – recovered for the moment from his alcoholism – makes it happen. In an effort to reclaim her mother’s wheel, Saskia spins yarns that no one has ever seen before. They are so unusual, so amazing, that Saskia and her father are brought before the King himself, and the miller makes his infamous claim – that Saskia can spin straw into gold.

The king is a greedy man, and he immediately locks Saskia up in a room full of straw – she is either to spin it into gold or to die the following morning. Rumplestiltskin hears of her plight and comes to her rescue 3 times over the next 3 days. Each time Saskia must give him something she holds dear. On the third day Rumplestiltskin demands her first born child. When she is released from her imprisonment on the 3rd day, Saskia is faced with the fact that rumors of her mysterious power have reached everyone in town and people either fear her or want to use her to make themselves wealthy. There’s no safe place for her to be. Just before she can despair, the King returns her to the palace and makes her his wife.

When Saskia’s daughter, Mathilde, is born, Saskia knows that she can’t give her up, so Rumplestiltskin gives her one last chance to win her back – she must guess his name. Naturally, she has no idea what it is. Elske, however, upon overhearing Saskia’s desperate conversation with her father, knows exactly who the strange crippled man is and where to find him. Guards are sent to spy on him and they return with a name. When Saskia meets Rumplestiltskin for the last time, she surprises him with her questions – for she has been able to unravel the history of their relationship. He becomes impatient with her at the last, so she gives him his true name and it sends him into such a fit that his twisted leg stamps clear through the floor. When he pulls it free, it bleeds freely and profusely and he goes into the night – not in triumph, but to his death.

What a horrible, horrible tragic ending to a tale that was fraught with misunderstanding from the beginning. It only serves to drive home the point that honesty is the best policy, and that fairy tales are not always happy things. Rumplestiltskin is transformed by his thievery, his deception, and eventually his disdain for other people. He may have been a good person once, but he lost all of that and then lost sight of what it was to be human or compassionate. He never gave his daughter a chance to know him, he only saw her initial fear and trepidation – and he wasn’t able to forgive her for it. Rumplestiltskin, is just terribly, terribly misunderstood. But because he makes little effort to reach out to people and because his thoughts are so twisted and confused, it’s hard to have much sympathy for him. He’s basically allowed his love for the young woman to corrupt him entirely, and he won’t get over it. If he had any kind of spirit he’d have moved on. Instead he gets all twisted and creepy.

Meanwhile, Saskia has grown up in poverty – mostly without her mother – and has had to be a parent to her parent. Her life is hard, and the miller pays her back by putting her life in danger. When Saskia does the impossible, she is both feared and desired – no one can see her in any other way. The King marries her, but it’s not a marriage Saskia wants, and then Rumplestiltskin vows to take her child. None of this is good, people. It’s just one bad thing after another and no one can be said to be really happy in the end. Saskia gets to keep Mathilde, true, but does she ever love the King? I like that Saskia is portrayed in this version of Rumplestiltskin as a smart and capable girl. She’s not the lazy, useless girl that often appears in the story. As a result you come to care for her and want her to succeed, but so many people and things stand in her way.

I kept being surprised by how bad things got. Many of Donna Jo Napoli’s other stories are for a younger audience, so perhaps they haven’t been as hard-hitting. This pulled no punches. There were a lot of raw emotions and desires laid bare for readers, and as a result, it was a much more powerful (and frustrating) story. (less)

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Sep 23, 2011 Lisa Rathbun added it

*Some spoilers* The book surprisingly opens with a young couple who've just made love. While I was initially surprised by this scene in a YA book, I soon realized that it wasn't just gratuitous; there was purpose and intention behind it.

Many fairy-tale retellings use the tale only as a starting point, taking the story in unexpected directions. In Spinners , Napoli actually ends up staying very close to the real tale, and therein is my disappointment. She crafts characters that you learn to car...more

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Mar 15, 2011 Alyssa rated it 2 of 5 stars

Oh why oh why do Napoli's dust jacket descriptions make her books so enticing? The story contained in this was much different than what I expected and I really liked the middle of the book otherwise I loathed it. First off I don't get why Napoli uses such short sentances as they read choppily and frustrate me (something a book should never do IMO). Secondly the only character I truly liked through most of it was Saskia. Napoli did excellent job with the spinning terminology which suprised me (I'...more

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Feb 05, 2010 MissDziura rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: traditional-literature

Donna Jo Napoli's adaptation of Rumpelstiltskin, Spinners, is written for the young adult reader. Although Napoli has written many versions of traditional literature, I felt that her take on Rumpelstiltskin was weak and left much to be desired. The story is told six parts, beginning with a love story of a spinner and a beautiful woman that also spins and ending with the known Rumpelstiltskin guess my name in three night's try episode. The main characters are all interconnected through familial r...more

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Feb 07, 2013 Leah rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Folk tale lovers

Recommended to Leah by: Librarians

Shelves: favorite-novels

As a young reader I was always actively looking for new novels to dive into, but this novel is one of the many I’ve read that I have never forgotten. Napoli gives a unique and interesting view into the old myth Rumpelstiltskin. The characters are fleshed out into complex and interesting people that made me care about them, most shockingly the ability to make me care about the villain as well as the hero. This novel, although read more than 9 years ago, still makes my heart tingle when I think a...more

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Feb 17, 2010 GenreGroup rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, fantasy-fairy-tale-retellings

Audrey Byrnes-Tolley's review:

The rumpled man was once able to spin straw into gold--but this gift took everything else he had. Saskia uses her gift for spinning to provide for herself and her father. When Saskia's father boasts to the king that she can spin straw into gold, the circumstances bring the rumpled man to her dungeon. Will the complicated secrets that tie them together save her or kill them both?

This unusual retelling of the Rumplestiltzkin story is written from the point of view o...more

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Nov 07, 2009 Jayne rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, teen

I was definitely disappointed with this retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin fairytale. The original story isn't that great to begin with and I had hoped the author would put a fun twist on things. Instead, her version actually made events in the story a LOT worse.

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Jul 06, 2010 Julie Franc rated it 2 of 5 stars

I read this book while trapped waiting for medical procedures that were taking forever. I had just finished the horrible Hush by this author and and was horrified to find the only other book I had to read was another one by the same author. After reading Hush, by Donna Jo I would not choose another one by this author.

Like Hush, this book had so much going for it. The story of the two spinners, the father and the daughter was wonderful. But, just like the book Hush, the ending was crap. Too much...more

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Jun 11, 2010 Bridget R. Wilson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fairy-tales, ya-fiction, ya-fairy-tales

Have you ever wondered why Rumpelstiltskin is the way he is? Small, gnarled, deformed, and covetous of ladies' first born children? Have you ever asked yourself why that miller's daughter? What compelled Rumpelstiltskin to help her? Spinners answers all these questions and more about the traditional fairy tale. To discover the story behind the story, you'll have to read it.

What I thought: This is another fantastic fairy tale book by Donna Jo Napoli. Her expansion on the original tale is inspired...more

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Apr 20, 2009 Jacqueline rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009

I'm giving this four stars instead of three because I think those among my peers who enjoy fairytale retellings will enjoy Spinners, if only because it's rare to see Rumpelstiltskin retold. (Then again, I might have said the same thing about Wizard of Oz at one point and look what happened with that.)

My only complaint is how abrupt the ending was, and the only reason why I might have given this book three stars instead of four. The authors invested a lot of thought into the background story and...more

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Jul 23, 2011 Ellisa Barr rated it 2 of 5 stars

About half-way through this book I realized I'd read it before. I remembered because I absolutely fell in love with the descriptions of the yarns that the spinners are spinning. This book made (makes) me want to go out and buy a spinning wheel and learn how to spin wildflowers into yarn.

Sadly, I'd forgotten how the book ended so I read through to the end, only to remember how much I can't stand the way the book ends. I won't give any spoilers, but I just find the ending terribly and unsatisfying...more

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Nov 19, 2011 Dayna Smith rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a magnificent, if more adult, re-telling of the story of Rumpelstiltskin. It encompasses everything love, pride, magic, greed, revenge. It is the story of two spinners; one a man crippled by love and the other the daughter he has never met. It tells how they eventually meet and how things don't turn out as either hopes. It certainly does not have a happily-ever-after ending; the ending leaves you wondering what becomes of both spinners and how love could have gone so wrong. A wonderful h...more

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Mar 30, 2013 Berny rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013

Once more Donna Jo takes on a fairy tale and fleshes it out, capturing the deep emotions and reasoning of the characters. This time the story is about Rumpelstiltskin, the little imp from the fairy tale that spins straw into gold in exchange for the miller's daughter's child (a recurring situation in many fairy tales). However this is not the central theme of the story. Instead the author settles for one far more subtle though of greater importance: the name of a person.

"What's in a name?" Wrote...more

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Aug 27, 2012 Oksana *Bookaholic* rated it 2 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who like bad endings

Recommended to Oksana by: goodreads

Shelves: fairy-tale, olden-days, princess

Wow. REALLY??? The beginning was a little foggy, but after a chapter or two I didn't care because I was so entranced. Well. So.... (LOTS OF SPOILERS HERE!!!), Rumpelstiltskin did it with a really pretty woman who married this other old guy. So, a daughter was born. But it wasn't the old guy's. It was Rumpelstiltskin's (but no one knew). Anyway, the pretty woman dies in childbirth. The daughter is "raised" by her drunk father, and she usually has to make sure that they have food on the table. One...more

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Apr 07, 2013 Joanne♥~Bookworm Extraordinaire rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fairy-tales, 1990s-publication, nbrc-tower-team-a

I really liked this fairy tale retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale because its tells about how
Rumpelstiltskin became Rumpelstiltskin. He wasn't always a deformed little man who just spun straw into gold and tried to take the Queen's baby.

In this story Rumpelstiltskin, is known throughout the book as the spinner. As the story begins the reader learns that the spinner was once a young man who was in love. He was a tailor and made his living weaving and fixing clothes. The young woman the...more I really liked this fairy tale retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale because its tells about how
Rumpelstiltskin became Rumpelstiltskin. He wasn't always a deformed little man who just spun straw into gold and tried to take the Queen's baby.

In this story Rumpelstiltskin, is known throughout the book as the spinner. As the story begins the reader learns that the spinner was once a young man who was in love. He was a tailor and made his living weaving and fixing clothes. The young woman the spinner loved, loved him as well. When he went to her father to ask for her hand, her father was going to marry her to the miller who could give her more than what the spinner could. However the spinner loved the girl so much that and wanted her so much that he told her father he could spin straw into gold and would make a gold wedding dress for her. The woman's father gave him a month to make the dress, agreeing that if he could make it then he would be able to marry her. While he was able to make the dress, spinning straw into gold with a stolen spinning wheel, the process deformed his leg, make it stay bent like a birds's wing. The women he loved, eventually couldn't stand the sight of his leg and married the miller instead. The spinner was heartbroken. Later on the woman became pregnant, which was the spinner's daughter not the miller's who she married (yes they had sex before being married...Shocker). The spinner poke to the woman he still loved the day the baby was to be born. The woman claimed that she didn't love him anymore and she named the spinner Rumpelstiltskin, out of spite. The baby is born, the woman dies and the spinner leaves town with his spinning wheel.

I liked Rumpelstiltskin in this book. You get to understand him and see what happens to him to make him want the Queen's (whose his daughter) baby. He has had a hard life. He lost the woman he loves when all he was trying to do was find a way to marry her. I gotta say the woman got what she deserved. She was so shallow that she couldn't see past his deformed leg which he got making HER selfish ass a dress so that her dumb father would allow the spinner to marry her selfish ass. Throughout the whole book, the spinner still loves the woman but God knows why. She betrayed him, ridiculed him and gave him a cruel name and he still loved her. What a sap, which makes the reader sympathize with him. Also not only does he have a daughter but he never saw her and she never knew about him. He lives day by day sometimes staying with families as their spinner for a few months, then moving on. Once he goes back to his home town, he meets a woman, Elke, who works for the king. The spinner's yarn are so good that she offers him a job spinning yarn in exchange for shelter and food. He agrees and then lived in a small shack in the woods by the castle. Finally the day comes when his daughter, Saskia, is captured by the king and locked in a room, being forced to spin straw into gold. The spinner wants to save his daughter and spins the straw for her. He wanted Saskia to see him and recognize something in him that would tell her he was her father. But she didn't. By the third night she had nothing left to trade him for spinning straw into gold. She offered him sex but he was disgusted by it because she was his daughter. When he came closer to her, which she took as an agreement to the offer, she grimaced and had disgust in her eyes, which angered him because the way she looked at him reminded him of her mother. Its sad because all he wanted was her love as a daughter which is why he ends up asking for her first born. He didn't want the baby for bad reasons, he wanted the baby to raise and to love and who would love him in return without looking at him in disgust. All he wanted was love his entire life. That selfish ass woman he loved and his dumbass daughter couldn't love him because of the way he looked which is just stupid. Obviously these people have never heard "don't judge a book by its cover". Especially the woman who the spinner loved. What kind of crap love is that where she dumps him because of his leg? If I truly loved someone and somehow they became deformed, I would't leave them because of that. They're still the same person on the inside no matter what they look like on the outside. So yeah I felt bad for the spinner and was on his side during the entire story.

There was really nothing remarkable about Saskia. She lived with her "father" the miller, who was a drunk. He drank every night. Eventually he became upset over a hair cut and a shave that Saskia gave him that he spent nine months drunk in bed. He didn't run his mill which means he didn't make any money. This is when Saskia learns how to spin on a spinning wheel (that was her mother's) from her best friend's mother. Eventually she hones her skills and becomes a master spinner making yarn even finer than her father's, the spinner. In that aspect she is just like her real father. Eventually the miller gets out of bed, notices that she can spin yarn and takes over selling her yarn at the market. Then the day comes where he takes Saskia to see the king where he stupidly blurts out that Saskia can spin straw into gold. Then the usual fairy tale that we all know was told, however with some aspects in the spinner's pov. Its is never really known whether Saskia figures out that the spinner is her real father. He calls her daughter which she thinks about and makes it seem like she knows or suspects he is her father. It is never really said outright.

This story was more of Rumpelstiltskin's story than it was about Saskia. Her parts were kind of boring to tell you the truth.

I can't help but think that (and this goes for the original fairy tale as well), if the spinner (aka: Rumpelstiltskin) kept his mouth shut and never sang that stupid song to himself that revealed his name, he be all in the clear and would of gotten his grandchild to love and raise. I mean, if you give a person 3 days to find out your name, then why in the world would you sing about your name before the 3 days are up? It just doesn't make sense. Oh well.

This review is also posted on Spantalian's Book Reviews
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Oct 30, 2012 Melissa Bashardoust added it

Shelves: ya-children, fantasy, fairy-tales, childhood-favorites

I remember reading this in my early teens and finding it pretty intense and disturbing, so naturally, I loved it. I think Donna Jo Napoli's retellings were the first time I started seeing the darkness in fairy tales, so I do have a strong nostalgic attachment to this book. Upon rereading it, I didn't find Spinners quite as breathlessly intense as the first time, but I've read a lot of things since then, so perhaps that's only to be expected.

Even so, I still really like this book, because it ref...more I remember reading this in my early teens and finding it pretty intense and disturbing, so naturally, I loved it. I think Donna Jo Napoli's retellings were the first time I started seeing the darkness in fairy tales, so I do have a strong nostalgic attachment to this book. Upon rereading it, I didn't find Spinners quite as breathlessly intense as the first time, but I've read a lot of things since then, so perhaps that's only to be expected.

Even so, I still really like this book, because it reflects many of the themes I find fascinating in the original fairy tale. 'Rumpelstiltskin' is a messy story full of potentially unsympathetic characters, and I think Spinners does a good job of keeping to that. Saskia, the miller's daughter, is more on the sympathetic side, but Rumpelstiltskin himself presents an interesting blend of menace and pathos, even from the beginning with his origin story. He's still the antagonist--it's his own sense of entitlement and inability to give anything without expecting something in return that causes so much trouble--but he's an understandable one, someone to pity rather than to loathe.

I also appreciate the emphasis on Saskia as a determined survivor, even before her ordeal with the straw. I loved Saskia's growing frustration and disillusionment with the people around her as she learns to depend on herself for survival. 'Rumpelstiltskin' is a story about a girl who is manipulated by three men, but who manages to win out in the end using whatever means necessary. It's not a completely happy ending--she's still married to a king who was perfectly willing to kill her if she didn't succumb to his greedy whims--so I like that the book doesn't try to force a perfectly tied-up ending, either. Regarding the ending (spoiler tags to be safe, but I won't mention specifics): (view spoiler)

I think this may be the kind of thing where if you find the original fairy tale unsatisfying or frustrating, Spinners is probably not going to be your cup of tea. It stays true to a lot of the elements of the original tale--it's ambiguous, it's a little disturbing, and it doesn't end neatly--and that's why I still like it.(less)

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May 03, 2008 Princess rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fairytales-retold

This week when I went to the library I found so many books I wanted to read, that I couldn’t get them all out! I have already finished the first, Spinners by Donna Jo Napoli and Richard Tchen. It is a re-telling of the story of Rumpelstiltskin that is both humanizing and a little magical too.

Rumpelstiltskin is the tale of a young peasant girl, a millers daughter who spins fine yarn. So fine that her father is always boasting of her. One day he goes too far and boasts that she could spin straw in...more

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Aug 19, 2010 Melody rated it 3 of 5 stars

I found this retelling of the Rumplestiltskin story to be very affecting and sort of sweet- but not squeaky clean sweet, which was lovely. I liked having the backstory of all the characters filled in. Napoli's version of those stories was believable in a fairy-tale context. I read an Advance Uncorrected Proof, so I am assuming that the errors in spelling were fixed by the time the final version was published.

If you like fairy tales with a small bit of sex and violence added, you might want to pi...more

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Jan 31, 2010 Marilyn rated it 2 of 5 stars

I like retellings of fairy tales, but I have discovered that there's always something unsatisfying about the ones by Donna Jo Napoli. I think this is the third one of hers I've read. You'd think I'd learn. This book has an interesting twist on the story of
Rumplestiltskin, but in the end, it left me cold. If you want a version of that traditional tale, try Curse as Dark as Gold. I thought it was much, much better.

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Apr 30, 2009 Beverly rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: retold-fairy-tales, young-adult

Dark retelling of Rumpelstiltskin. Rumpelstiltskin turns out to be a spindler who cripples himself spinning straw into gold for the woman he loves. His subsequent life is loveless and lonely, so the baby he later demands from the young queen is an attempt to fill the void in his life. Touching and moving story, but Napoli always sucks the magic out of fairy tales. This one is grimmer than Grim.

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Aug 02, 2012 Lynette added it

ATTENTION YOUNG READERS:
This book starts off with a sex scene. Like, all out, sex scene.
If you, like me highly disapprove/ do not read this kind of stuff, DO NOT read his book.

I must admit, I didn't finish it. Which is why I'm not rating it. I don't care how amazing the rest of the book is, I don't read this kind of stuff.

I'm 14, and I DON'T recommend this book.

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Jun 01, 2009 Ashley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fairy-tales

I liked this book a lot while I was reading it. It was well written, and captivating. I sympathized with both Rumplestiltskin and the Miller's Daughter, something that doesn't often happen. I really liked the character of the Miller's Daughter. This has never been a favorite fairy tale of mine, because all of the characters are weak and rather stupid. In this story however, there are many strong characters, all very well developed. I enjoyed it right up until the end. The last paragraph was weir...more

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Dec 25, 2009 Lindsey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: young, fairy-tales

Donna Jo Napoli has a talent of taking a familar, but albeit short fairy tale and spinning it into an entire novel. And even though I know how the tale should end, I still hold my breath and read faster to see what will unravel.

Favorite quote: A name is a person, the spinner wants to say. A name is an emblem of worthyness.

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Oct 30, 2012 Sam Blevins rated it 2 of 5 stars

The entire book built up back stories and relationships between characters in a sense and then at the end of the book just ended.

It did not satisfy what the relationships between the characters built up to. It felt like the ending was missing pages. The story should have continued and tied everything together!

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May 31, 2011 Cherylann rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, knitting, ya

Spinners is a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, and it's not for the faint of heart. I was expecting to be bored by the book because I know the story. However, the writing was hauntingly beautiful. The characters were cruel as well as kind. And the theme is timeless. I found myself transfixed by this magical tale.

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Jan 03, 2010 Sarah Elizabeth rated it 2 of 5 stars

I really did not enjoy this book and here is why. I recognize that it is a good story that will appeal to many people. A retelling of Rumpelstiltskin. However, I found Napoli's writing too bland and the story lacked any page-turning elements. The set-up was a little twisted, but this was almost completely lost in innuendo. None of the characters held names of their own, except the horrible nickname set upon the shriveled little man himself. And why this nickname was so horrible was lost on me, a...more

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Jun 11, 2010 Cindy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fairy-tale, teen, 10-10-10

Themes: fairy tales, Rapunzel, spinning, family
Setting: small medieval town

I've heard recommendations of this retelling of Rapunzel. I usually like fairy tale retellings, but this one was a disappointment. It started off promising enough, but sort of lost steam and I never really got involved in the story. Saskia is the miller's daughter - or is she? When the miller becomes a drunk, she is forced to take care of her own future. She digs out her mother's spinning wheel and goes to work. So far, s...more

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Oct 26, 2008 Lia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: retellings

A retelling of Rumpelstiltskin. My big gripe with this book is how dissatisfied I felt at the end. It isn't that I wanted a "happy" ending, necessarily, but I did want to feel like there was some kind of closure or purpose or . . . something. The story has a lot to recommend it: A unique spin (ha) on the tale, and some wonderfully creative pieces about what the miller's daughter spins on her spinning wheel. This was my favorite part of the book. I wish there had been more of this type of satisfy...more

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Mar 15, 2011 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult

I thought the language of this story was really beautiful and I loved the backstory! It was such an imaginative addition to the story and really made me love Rumplestiltskin all the more. I'm pretty happy with this retelling of the old folk tale. I really need to read some of Napoli's other retellings!

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Young Adult > Teen

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Historical Fiction

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Childrens

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Fantasy > Magic

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About Donna Jo Napoli

From her website:

Donna Jo Napoli is both a linguist and a writer of children's and YA fiction.

Donna Jo has five children. She dreams of moving to the woods and becoming a naturalist. She loves to garden and bake bread.

At various times her house and yard have been filled with dogs, cats, birds, and rabbits. For thirteen years she had a cat named Taxi, and liked to go outside and call, "Taxi!" to...more

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