Rumpelstiltskin

by Joanna Nadin

This series is a collection of some of the best known stories from around the world carefully adapted for children to read themselves. 'Rumpelstiltskin' is a traditional tale from German folklore about a girl who needs help from a goblin to spin straw into gold.

32 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2011

About the author

Joanna Nadin is an English author of juvenile fiction best known for the Rachel Riley series of teenage novels Based on Nadin's own childhood, the series follows the comedic narration of a 13-year-old girl.

Nadin has also written several books of juvenile fiction. These include two books for the Oxford University Press "Project X" series designed to encourage boys to read.

Nadin previously worked as a policy writer for the Labour Party (UK).In 2001, she became a special adviser to Tony Blair.

As a child I buried myself in books both at home in Essex and at my grandparents’ houses in Cornwall, where I spent a large part of my time, and where many of my stories are now set. Books and later films were an escape not just from where I was but who I was, which, as I saw it, was pretty much a geek. They gave me the freedom to become someone else, from George in the Famous Five to Velvet Brown winning the Grand National to Baby dancing the Chachacha with Johnny Castle.

Reviews

[Suzette Pereyra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This version of Rumpelstiltskin was found on You Tube as a read aloud. In this book, the miller’s daughter is in love with the prince. Her father boasts to the King that his daughter can spin straw into gold. So the king promises to let his son marry her if she can accomplish that. She is a very lively girl who stamps her foot when she is locked in a room full of straw by the king. That is when a goblin appears and demands her necklace in return for his help. The second time he demands her ring, and the third time her baby. Years pass before the goblin appears again, when her baby is one year old. The queen offers to guess the goblin’s name in order to be able to keep the baby. She guesses many multicultural names from Greek, Polish, German, Latin, and Asian origins. She researches in the library searching for names. Finally she goes to the market to listen for more names and hears “a little man” reciting a poem with his name as he worked. When he returns later that night and she guesses his name correctly, he becomes very angry and stamps his foot right through the floor! She offers to help him free his foot, and then he disappears, never to be seen again. This version has lighter, more modern pictures than the older version, and would be a good fit for first-third graders in a fairy tale unit. It has the elements of a classic fairy tale, such as a repetition of 3, magic, a poor girl marrying a prince and living happily ever after, and good versus evil. The miller’s daughter is more proactive in this version and figures out how to solve her problems on her own.

[Lia Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

A traditional tale from 18th century German folklore, Rumpelstiltskin is a story about the consequences of lying and the success of good over evil. After a struggling miller lies to a king, telling him that his daughter Lily can ‘spin straw into pure gold’, the opportunistic and greedy king locks up Lily. He presents her with a deal that if she can transform bales of straw into reels of gold then she can marry his son, the prince. Lily agrees despite the lack of weight to her father’s claims, but in frustration she stamps her foot. This results in the appearance of a goblin, Rumpelstiltskin, who demonstrates a pattern of deal-making with Lily - first she must agree to sacrifice her necklace, her ring and then shockingly her first born child to the goblin, and in return he agrees to transform the straw into gold. This story offers depth beyond the simplistic narrative of ‘happily ever after’ because despite Lily ending up with the Prince, eventually her deals with the goblin catch up to her with the birth of her first child and the return of Rumpelstiltskin. Lily makes another deal with the goblin that if she can guess his name (which she does not yet know) within three days, then she can keep her child. Lily guesses a variety of names from a variety of different cultures until eventually she cleverly tracks down the goblin at a market and overhears him reciting a poem where he reveals his name. After guessing his name correctly, the goblin stamps his foot so hard that it gets stuck within the concrete of the floor. Lily then makes her own deal with the goblin that if she helps him to free his foot, then he must disappear and never return, eventually delivering a ‘happy ever after’ for Lily and her small family.

This retelling offers fabulous illustrations and an accurately harsh representation of Rumpelstiltskin. Although it holds the limitations of many traditional tales, such as a young woman being bargained by her father and driven by nothing more than love for an unknown prince, this particular story presents Lily with some agency over her destiny as she ends up saving herself and her family. Furthermore, the moral lesson of integrity still holds relevance. However I would say that this story is quite a severe method of presenting values of honesty and integrity, in keeping with a lot of the traditional tales collected by the Brothers Grimm and grown ups should be responsible in considering whether this is appropriate for particular younger readers.

[Hollie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is about a poor miller and his beautiful daughter named Lily. She is in love with a prince who is off limits to her due to her family being very poor. Lily's father took it upon himself to brag to the king about Lilylily and all of her amazing assets that make her different from other girls. The king finally agreed and told Lily to return to the castle the next day and to turn a bail of hay into gold, and if she could do it by the next morning, the king would allow her to marry the prince. Lily was unable to do so; however, made a deal with a goblin that he would turn it into gold in return for her first born child. She ended up marrying the prince and having a baby. The goblin returned and demanded the baby, in which Lily did not want to give up. He gave Lily 3 days to try and guess his name and if when he returned she got the name right, she could keep her child. She failed many times and finally got his name right and the story ends with her keeping her child. The theme helps educate children in regards to making promises. Not to make a promise if you do not want to follow through with it. It's a typical children's story but it is not one of my favorites. It has some parts that are a little harsh, like stealing someone's baby.

[Kylee Doty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rumplestiltskin is a children’s book written by Joanna Nadin. The story talks about a girl who is in love with a prince, but she is too poor to marry him. A goblin says he will give her gold in exchange for her firstborn child and she agrees. When she has the child, she doesn’t want to give it to the goblin, so he says if he guesses the child’s name, he can keep him. He guesses the name, Rumpelstiltskin, but in the end, the girl ends up being able to keep her son. The overarching theme of this book is to go after what you want no matter what the cost is. Sometimes you need to be smart and sometimes tricky in order to get what you want. It also talks about how you will periodically have to make sacrifices in order to get what you want. I rated this book five stars because the pictures were beautiful and the plot was a little more complicated than some of the other ones I’ve read. I like that it has more of an actual storyline that children can begin to follow. Also, children can start to try anticipating what is going to come next in the story, which is a strong characteristic of this book.

[Albana Bregu · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story about the daughter of a miller who turns a bail of hay into gold with the help of a goblin. but goblin wants something in return for his services-her son. Will Lily protect her son?
A book that tells children to be careful when they make promises.

[Miyuke · Rating 5 out of 5]

E-book via : oxfordowl.co.uk
ISBN : 9780198339656

Simple story which is comes from German folklore. Rumpelstiltskin is known as goblin in this short story book.

Nice storyline, great illustration and fun!

[Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to read this

[Liang TianCheng · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ridiculous! What's the point?

[Benjamin Bates · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a retail on the traditional story Rumpelstiltskin. This is a good book for school as well as the story the book also contains; tips for reading the book together, words within the book, talking together about the book, and what can be done while reading the book. There is also a story retail at the end to allow this to be made into a retail activity to be completed similar to RWI. I also like the fact the author also used names within the book that would allow children of other cultures to relate e.g. Hammed, santos, Akeem, Anton, Ahmed.