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Summary: Zelinsky brings depth and beauty to a frightening fairy tale
Review: When I was a child I remember being frightened by the story of Rumpelstiltskin. A miller�s daughter is ordered to spin straw into gold or the king will have her executed. An odd little man appears and offers to help her in exchange for her first born child. Finally, she makes a deal: she will be able to keep her child if she can guess the little man�s name. Through stealth, she does so, and the angry little man flies away on a cooking spoon. All fairy tales have an odd element to them, but this one was so bizarre it was scary. And every character in it is despicable, including the greedy king, who the miller�s daughter marries (was that supposed to be a happy ending?).Paul Zelinsky hasn�t altered a single detail of the odd story, but his illustrations, based on Italian Renaissance oil paintings, make the tale clearer and far less frightening. His control of gesture and facial expression is marvelous, and as you watch the miller�s daughter�s face change from innocence to wariness to fear for her child, to intelligent calculation, and finally to triumph, it is obvious that this is a story of a young woman making her way from complete innocence, where she is at the mercy of others, to an intelligent (if crafty) control of her own life. The best picture in the book is the final one: the miller�s daughter, now queen, looks down on her baby with love, while the greedy king stands looking on, a little dumbfounded, a little awed. There may be hope for this relationship after all. This is a book my daughter asks me to read over and over, and I�m more than happy to do so.
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