Rapunzel's Revenge. Shannon Hale.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hale, Shannon, and Dean Hale. Illus. Nathan Hale. 2008. Rapunzel’s Revenge. Bloomsbury: London. ISBN : 9780747587439.

PLOT SUMMARY

Rapunzel has no idea what lies over the giant wall surrounding the castle where she lives as Mother Gothel’s daughter and heir. When she dares to spy over it one day, she meets her real mother living in slavery on the other side. Her curiosity incurs the wrath of Mother Gothel and she is locked away in a small room at the top of a very tall, very magical tree. During her years in captivity her hair grows extremely long and she devises an escape plan to use her hair like a rope: rappelling out of the tree, into the wild forest around her, and off to save her real mother from Mother Gothel’s evil rule. As Rapunzel herself says in the narration, “This is where the ‘once upon a time’ part ends.”


CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Rapunzel is reinvented in this exciting rendition of the classic fairy tale collaboration by Shannon Hale, her husband Dean Hale, the brilliant artist Nathan Hale (no relation) and Melinda Hale (also no relation) on text detail. Here is where the Brothers Grimm meets the Wild West with creative abandon. Everything is exaggerated by Mother Gothel’s growth magic. There is a reassuring diversity among characters living in Gothel's realm coming in every shape and color. There are dwarves and a magic pick axe named Inga, a crazy hermit named Witchy Jasper who has a pet jackelope, a sea serpent, a giant bucking boar, scary coyotes, and more. Rapunzel herself is a lasso wielding acrobat out to save the world in her funky outfits and flaming locks a mile long. Jack, the mysterious outlaw with magic beans, is a native boy running from the law with a goose named Goldie who may one day lay an egg.

This tall tale has all the best from western legends and the desert scenery with rocky landscape, native architecture, and oversize cactus bring home the high desert. The two protagonists are in trouble everywhere they go, making for non-stop action adventure. After Rapunzel’s escape from the magic tree, Mother Gothel put a price on Rapunzel’s head for treason and sent her muscleman, Brute, to fetch her. (He’s huge and rides a ginormous buffalo … are you thinking Paul Bunyan?) Gothel locked up Rapunzel’s birth mother, and Rapunzel is determined to get back to the castle to rescue her mother, overthrow Gothel’s evil rule, and return the country to prosperity. But first they outwit every foe that crosses their path and make some friends along the way. The writing is spunky with witty banter and jokes galore. The fast paced plot doesn’t faze Nathan Hale. His illustrations move across the page with a rhythm all their own and bring the story to life. If you don’t take time to study them you’ll miss some better details of the story. A number of well known fairy tales find their way into the telling of Rapunzel’s Revenge adding intrigue and humor on a myriad of levels, but it would take an evil stepmother to give that part away.

Though nearly 150 pages thick, I devoured this novel in one afternoon. It proved to be a great escape from the real world for a few hours and I will gratefully read it again. A joy for anyone and everyone –even my toddler is now trying to lasso the world!


REVIEW EXCERPTS

“In this graphic novel, Rapunzel's a spunky, hair-whip-toting cowgirl. She joins with stolen-goose rapscallion Jack to rescue her mother and end her wicked stepmother's reign. The gutsy tale is particularly well suited to its format, with illustrations mixing the familiar and offbeat. High action, sensory thrills, and the wisecracking heroes are clearly conveyed through image cropping, text placement, and facial emotional cues.” Horn Book. http://www.perma-bound.com/

“If you don’t love this one… I’ll grow super-long braids and ride off into the sunset.” Shelfelf. http://shelfelf.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/rapunzels-revenge/


AWARDS for Rapunzel’s Revenge

Rapunzel’s Revenge has won or has been nominated for many awards, including an ALA 2009 Notable Children’s Book award, a YALSA 2009 Great Graphic Novel for Teens award, and an Eisner Award nomination.


CONNECTIONS

Students can search for the different characters mentioned in this rendition. Each student can choose one and compare their original tale to the new characterization in Rapunzel’s Revenge.

For a creative writing exercise, reinvent another fairy tale or legend, create a dialogue and perform it or illustrate and publish it.

In history, relate Rapunzel’s hair-power with other Samson tales or tie it to the traditional role of hair across cultures (Seikh, Native American, etc)
Shannon provides some wonderful activity ideas on her website, http://www.squeetus.com/stage/books_rap.html

Find out more about the Hales online at Shannon’s official website http://www.squeetus.com/stage/main.html and in her wikipedia page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_Hale.