I wavered between giving this book three and four stars. It's definitely an original retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin story, adapting it for a middle-grade audience and making Rumpelstiltskin just 12 years old when the events of the tale we know so well unfold. The story starts out with a nice set-up and reveals its themes about the power of names right from the beginning. The tension builds at a nice pace, from Rump feeling like an outsider, to discovering his magic, to becoming entangled in its price. In addition to characterizing Rumpelstiltskin in new ways (he's so sympathetic that he almost seems too sweet at times), it also gifts the miller, his daughter, and the king with salient personalities, making them all unlikable in different ways.

The magic system and the "rules" of magic reminded me a lot of Ella Enchanted, where characters are granted pardon for their bad or perplexing behavior because the "magic made me do it." Although the story seems to falter a little bit in its second half, it redeems itself by fitting all the various threads together especially neatly in the end. It was pretty easy to see how it would all turn out, but I did appreciate the way Shurtliff managed to tie all the fairy tale's key elements in even while staying true to her own "take" on the story. I was also delighted to find aspects of other fairy tales making their appearances, so that it has a flavor of "mashup" rather than strict retelling. We see the apple tree that grows from the seeds of Snow White's poisoned apple, and Rump's friend Red is a clear nod to Red Riding Hood. This ended up being just as good as Gail Carson Levine's middle-grade retellings, and I would read more stories set in this world.

Genre:  Fairy Tale / Germany / Audiobook / Family

Year Published: 1991

Year Read:  2006

Publisher: Rabbit Ears Books

Series: We All Have Tales 

Rabbit Ears Productions is widely known for their celebrity narrated stories. The production also many stories that were highlights of the 1990s. “Rumpelstiltskin” is a popular story from Rabbit Ears “We All Have Tales” series and is greatly enhanced by Kathleen Turner’s narration, Tangerine Dream’s haunting music and Peter Sis’s delicate drawings.

Kathleen Turner’s narration is extremely brilliant as she uses a somewhat menacing voice foreshadowing Rumpelstiltskin’s ulterior motives. Also, Turner does an excellent job at being brilliantly scary towards the end of the story when Rumpelstiltskin meets his demise. Tangerine Dream’s haunting music provided the perfect mysterious atmosphere to the appearance of the little man to enacting Rumpelstiltskin’s frightening dance number when the queen searches for him. Peter Sis’s drawings are delicate yet haunting, especially of the image of Rumpelstiltskin pulling off his mask, revealing a skeleton face.



Parents should know that younger viewers may be frightened by the theme of Rumpelstiltskin trying to take the child away from the queen. Since, many children are getting kidnapped in the world today; many young viewers may worry about being kidnapped by a little man. Also, since Rumpelstiltskin’s reasons for wanting the child is made unclear, children may fear that Rumpelstiltskin may hurt the baby boy.

“Rumpelstiltskin” is another Rabbit Ears story that is mysterious and haunting, just like “The Fisherman and his Wife,” and is full of engaging music and images that create a wondrous world full of mystery and enchantment. This is a great film for the whole family watch, but parents must warn their children about the theme of child-kidnapping before letting them watch this video.

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

2/5 stars

Growing up the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin was one I didn’t know very well. But once I began watching Once Upon a Time, on ABC I fell in love with Robert Carlyle’s portrayal. No matter what “Mr. Gold/Rump” did I was bewitched by him and he remained my favorite. So when I came across this book I was hoping it had the same effect. I was, however, quite sad that Rumpel isn’t very mischievous in Suzanne Weyn’s retelling.

There is no magic in this fairy tale, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. In fact, one of the things I liked best about the story is that she made it work in an everyday way. They had to have their talents, rather than magic to help them along. And the setting of 1880 New York, in the industrial period when women had very few career options really worked well.

There were some things that didn’t work out for me though. Bertie falls for a guy she hardly knows, which I understand can happen but I get sick of books always having it one of two ways. Either they hate each other until they learn to love each other or it’s a love at first sight kind of story. I’m fairly certain there are other ways to make a romance novel work. I don’t want to go into all of the inaccuracies but there were quite a few I noticed. One especially is the strapless dress. The earliest mention I could find for strapless dresses was in the 1930s.

All in all it was alright. Enjoyable for the most part while I read it but didn’t live up to my expectations. Robert Carlyle has set my Rumpelstiltskin bar very, very high.