Sunday, October 12, 2008

Rapunzel: A Groovy Fairy Tale (Traditional Literature)


“Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!” Although this line usually makes you think of the classic fairy tale, this groovy version is anything but classical. Retold by Lynn Roberts and illustrated by David Roberts, the new and “improved” Rapunzel is the groovy kind of damsel in distress. Rapunzel lives with her horrible Aunt Esme and aunt’s pet crow named Roach. Rapunzel’s aunt refused to let Rapunzel leave their apartment at the top of their old and abandoned apartment building. Since the elevator was broken in their building and considering the thousand stairs from the top to the bottom, Aunt Esme used Rapunzel’s long braid to leave the apartment, leaving Rapunzel all alone. One day a boy, Roger, from the school that Esme works at as a cafeteria lady follows her home and immediately falls in love with Rapunzel’s flowing red hair. Roger tricks Rapunzel into letting down her hair so he can climb up and finally see her. Roger and Rapunzel quickly become great friends and create a plan for Rapunzel to escape. Once Aunt Esme discovers what Rapunzel and Roger have been up she cuts all of Rapunzel’s hair off, so she will never escape. Eventually Rapunzel does escape her horrible aunt and goes in search of Roger. Roger and Rapunzel finally find each other and even start a bad, and wear wigs made from Rapunzel’s long, flowing, red hair. This book was extremely imaginative and modernized the classic fairy tale of Rapunzel. The illustrations were great and I’m sure children would enjoy comparing this version to the other versions of Rapunzel.

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