Spinners

Rating:
Summary: This story based on a fairy tale is anything but childlike.
Review: I gave this book one star, because there was not a lower rating. To place this book in any children's category is irresponsible. This story is adult and sophisticated. The salacious sex and the erroneous information on birth control makes this story based on a fairy tale anything but childlike.

If this book had been written for an adult audience, I would have given it four stars for its imaginative writing.

Rating:
Summary: What a beautiful story!
Review: I have never liked the story of Rumpelstiltskin, so I suprised myself when I checked this book out from the library. I'm so glad that I did. Donna Jo Napoli did such a wonderful job writing Spinners that I'm now convinced that the Grimm Brothers were WRONG! This is how Rumpelstiltskin was ment to be.

In this book we gain insight to Rumpelstiltskin's personality: why he is deformed, how he can spin straw into gold, and the reason that he bargained for the queen's firstborn child. We learn that he once loved so deeply that he gave up everything to impress his lover's father...only to lose lose her in the end as she has his baby while married to another.

Fifteen years later he returns to the village he grew up in and finds that his daughter (whom has never spoken to him and does not know that the man who has raised her is not her father) needs his help to save her life. She must spin straw into gold. He gives her this help, but asks for the impossible in return- her first child. Will Rumpelstiltskin get his grandchild? Read Spinners to lose yourself in a tragic, moving, and deep story- one that you won't forget!

Rating:
Summary: Literary Theory
Review: I obviously think this is a wonderful book (note the stars) and am sorely disappointed by those of you who could not appreciate this tale for the brilliant piece of work that it is. There are two main arguments that I have seen portraying this book as one of small literary merit. The first and largest is the general disliking of the depressing ending. If you have ever had an English class that was worth anything at all then you would realize that happy go lucky stories are rarely thought provoking. If you wanted a no brainier easy read then you should have picked up a different book. The other reason people did not like this book was because of its hinted at mature content. This is why it is a young adult book. If you have a problem with hinted at sex and birth control then don't read young adult books. You should probably not let your eleven year old read the book either (even though they probably have heard worse at school).

Rating:
Summary: TERRIBBLE ending!!!
Review: I thought this book was pretty neat when I started it, and liked it until I got to the end. I didn't like the end because I was on Rumpelstiltskin's side. I know that in the original story Rumpelstilskin didn't get the baby, but it doesn't seem right to make people feel how he felt, and understand why he did what he did and then just let Saskia have the baby.It makes sense, but I hated it.In my mind, the unknown spinner was a 'good guy', but Saskia was also a 'good guy'.
I wouldn't recomend reading this book. The idea was great, but the ending was TERRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A better retelling of a fairy tale is Beauty, by Robin McKinley.It is MUCH better than Spinners!!

Rating:
Summary: Good book, bad ending
Review: I was really liking this book up until the second half. I really liked the story, too, and then everything bad started happening. It was ok at first, but the ending was just too much. Even though I didn't like the end, the rest of the book was good, and I was never bored the whole time I was reading it. Just be prepared for the end.

Rating:
Summary: This is to balance the other reader's comments (and stars)
Review: I'd give this story four and 7/8 stars if I could. The last three paragraphs were confusing and strage. The rest of the book was what I what I have come to expect from Napoli's YA retellings of fairy tales and myths: sophisticated, mature -- and very sad.

These books aren't for everyone: are any? Yes there is sex, not described, just present. It is, in Napoli's hands, *a love story,* at least at first. Yes there is inaccurate --and ineffective -- birth control.

My wish is that Napoli had done more than fill out the characters in the fairy tale & actually changed it.

Rating:
Summary: not so hot
Review: I'm crazy about retold fairy tales but this one just falls a little short. For one thing, no real love story. For another, it was sorta depressing. I don't really like the tale of Rumpelstiltskin very much anyway (I always felt a little bit sorry for him (a very little bit)) but it has always held some sort of magic for me just like all the other fairy tales. This version of it just sucked the magic right out. It's not exactly dark but it's not light either. It just falls somewhere in the middle, like it was hanging in Limbo or something. I don't recommend reading it.

Rating:
Summary: Sad But Good
Review: I've never really enjoyed the story of Rumpelstiltskin but this story was so moving that I thoroughly enjoyed it. The tailor/spinner in the story is never referred to by his real name, instead he is just "tailor." When he was young he was in love with a farmer's daughter who was a spinster. In exchange for her hand in marriage the farmer demands a wedding gown made of gold. In making the gown by turning straw into gold on an old spinning wheel the young man cripples himself and becomes deformed. The young woman then scorns him and marries a miller.

Later, the woman has his child (they'd slept together before he became crippled) and dies in childbirth. The story then chronicles the daughter's journey to adulthood and queenship in parallel with the tormented life of the tailor.

Overall an extremely sad book that makes you really feel sorry for the tailor but one that is exquisitely written.

Rating:
Summary: A tender and tragic tale
Review: Napoli and Tchen weave a beautiful and bitter-sweet tale that takes this fairy tale to a new level. Based on the age old story of Rumpelstiltskin, Spinners delves into the story behind the story. The Spinner is a tailor who loves a woman so desperatly that he would do anything for her, even spin straw into gold. When he promises her father to clothe his love in gold he has to make good on his word. But his ever faithful love marries the drunken old miller instead. But she is with the Spinner's child.
Fifteen years later, the spinner returns to his village and saves his daughter, who likewise has a gift for spinning, from the fate imposed upon her by the king.
Beautiful retelling of the classic fairy tale, poignant and moving. I was unused to the tense in which the story was written, but it soon became natural to read as if it were just happening. If you have ever read Napoli's other books, such as Zel you will love this one!

Rating:
Summary: Disney will never touch this one
Review: Napoli's fine amplified tellings of fairy tales reach deep down into the reader's soul, where you are most afraid that your life IS like a fairy tale. This one has the "classic" ending where poor old Rumplestiltskin bangs his leg through the floor and that's the end of him and his story. Most people who are conditioned by Hollywood studios to expect everything to end happily ever after will not like this one. It sure won't sell any lunchboxes, so I know Disney will never option it. Great for teens, or older elementary kids who are past the "bibbidy bobbedy boo" stage and still have a sense of wonder.Great read aloud for high schoolers, too. Even grownups (fans of Anne Sexton for instance) will love it.