Product Description
Surely among the most original and gifted of children's book illustrators, Paul O. Zelinsky has once again with unmatched emotional authority, control of space, and narrative capability brought forth a unique vision for an age-old tale. Few artists at work today can touch the level at which his paintings tell a story and exert their hold. Zelinsky's retelling of Rapunzel reaches back beyond the Grimms to a late-seventeenth-century French tale by Mlle. la Force, who based hers on the Neapolitan tale Petrosinella in a collection popular at the time. The artist understands the story's fundamentals to be about possessiveness,confinement, and separation, rather than about punishment and deprivation. Thus the tower the sorceress gives Rapunzel here is not a desolate, barren structure of denial but one of esoteric beauty on the outside and physical luxury within. And the world the artist creates through the elements in his paintings the palette, control of light, landscape, characters, architecture, interiors, costumes speaks to us not of an ugly witch who cruelly imprisons a beautiful young girl, but of a mother figure who powerfully resists her child's inevitable growth, and of a young woman and man who must struggle in the wilderness for the self-reliance that is the true beginning of their adulthood. As ever, and yet always somehow in newly arresting fashion, Paul O. Zelinsky's work thrillingly shows us the events of the story while guiding us beyond them to the truths that have made it endure.

Amazon.com Review
In older versions of the classic tale Rapunzel, it always seemed improbable that a grown man could scale a tower using only his beloved's hair. Not so in Paul O. Zelinsky's Caldecott Medal-winning version of Rapunzel. Here, Rapunzel's reddish-blonde mane is thick with waves and braids, and cascades like a waterfall down the walls of her isolation tower. In Zelinsky's able hands it's easy to believe that a prince would harbor no hesitations about scrambling up our fair heroine's hair.

Of course, this is not the work of an amateur--Zelinsky's lush versions of Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, and Swamp Angel all earned him Caldecott Honors. His gorgeous, Italian Renaissance-styled illustrations are characterized by warm golden tones and the mesmerizing sensation of trompe l'oeuil. Not only does he have the touch of a world-class illustrator, Zelinsky has also proven himself a master storyteller. We are frightened when the sorceress demands to take the baby Rapunzel, we are alarmed when the flowing locks are cruelly shorn, and we rejoice when the prince and his now modest-haired love are reunited. The notes at the back of Rapunzel reveal his careful scholarship regarding the long history of the story (tracing its origins and transformations from Italy to France and finally to Germany and the Grimm brothers)--work that no doubt contributed to his clean, compelling version of the age-old tale. Children will be captivated by the magical story and evocative pictures and adults will delight in the fresh feel of a well-loved legend. (Click to see a sample spread. Illustration © 1997 by Paul O. Zelinsky, published by Dutton Children's Books, a division of Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers.) (Ages 4 and older)

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 52 reviews)

Be ready to explain the birds and bees!

This book is beautifully illustrated and well written, but the text may be too mature for many young children. I bought this for my four-year-old daughter. Reading it to her the first time, I was left a bit bemused when, on one page, Rapunzel is visited in the tower at night by the prince and then, on the next page, she's pregnant:

"'Rapunzel said, "If you please, Stepmother, help me with my dress, it doesn't want to fit me anymore.'
Instantly the sorceress understood what Rapunzel did not. 'Oh, you wicked child!' she shrieked. I thought I had kept you safe, away from the whole world...'"

I thought other parents might appreciate the warning, since you can't preview all the pages when buying a book online.
June 25, 2008

The ultimate version of this story...

This is the most ideal Rapunzel storybook you could possibly imagine. The story is well written, and the illustrations are so fine in quality that it is a true pleasure to look through the pages and marvel at Paul Zelinsky's skills as an artist. This and Rumpelstiltskin (also illustrated by Zelinsky), are two of my favorite kid books. I love it when illustrations so perfectly reflect the flavor of the story and are technically skillful to the utmost level. This is a must-have!
June 13, 2008

This is the true spirit of the fairy tale

I really hate it when people "Disney-fy" good ol' fairy tales in their books--only Disney is allowed to do that. Zelinksy keeps Grimm's tale to its good ol' grim self with much of the original ideas, if paraphrased (but hey, it makes the stuff prettier). Best of all our Zelinsky's art which mirror the style of the medieval time. They are detailed and extremely gorgeous. I probably would not recommend this version to young children (then again, I don't know how many original fairy tales I would recommend to young children). But this is how Rapunzel was meant to be and Zelinsky certainly gives us that.
May 10, 2008

Rapunzel the Beautiful

There are many illustrated versions of Rapunzel on the children's market, but surely none can compare with Paul O. Zelinsky's Caldecott version.

As he explains in "A Note about Rapunzel" in the back of the book, he traced the history of the story and discovered its roots in Italy, determining then to set his version within the artwork of Renaissance Italy. Rapunzel is the German word for a salad green and root with a flavor between argula and watercress. In some stories the green is parsley called rampion.

In this version a young pregnant wife begins craving rapunzel which she sees outside her window. I must have it, must have it, she tells her husband, knowing that the garden in the courtyard below belongs to a sorceress. She has her rapunzel, but the witch catches the husband stealing it and makes him promise the baby to her.

As the story goes, the sorceress locks the pre-adolescent child in a campanile with no doors and only Rapunzel's long red-gold tresses as a rope to the top. The prince finds her, learns the secret to the top, avows his love, and she gets pregnant.

The story ends happily, of course, following the traditional plot line. What sets this version so very far apart from its siblings is the glorious Renaissance-like artwork. Flowing clothing, long, wavy hair, dark and silvery plant life, blue and gray haze in the background, particular people groupings, perfectly balanced settings, Roman ruins--all traditional aspects of Renaissance art are depicted.

One little intrusion into this Renaissance setting is a kitten whose growth is also measured by Rapunzel's. This Siamese is in almost every frame with Rapunzel all the way to the end which is a cozy tableau of family bliss.

This Rapunzel belongs in every home with a child and adults who appreciate the joy of children's books.

May 04, 2008

Beautiful

This book is well told and beautifully illustrated. My daughter is 4 and listened to it and enjoyed it. She really loves the pictures. It is the kind of book you want to keep and take care of as your collection. It definitely doesn't get played with! I recommend this to mom's who love fairy tales and want their daughters to love them too.
February 20, 2008

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