Golden: A Retelling of "Rapunzel" by Cameron Dokey
This is not a normal story about Rapunzel. We know this within the first several pages of the book because the child named Rapunzel is bald and remains that way. So you know right off that this is no run-of-the-mill child unfortunate enough to get stuck in a tower for most of her life.
This Rapunzel starts out normally enough. Her mother had to have a certain variety of parsley/lettuce known as rapunzel and sent her husband next door to gather some. However, since their next door neighbor was a sorceress the devoted husband thought that he would have a better chance of getting the parsley if he stole it. This is where we know the story has gone awry because the sorceress is kind and allows the woman to have all the rapunzel she desired and in return, they must love their child no matter what because if they don't, the sorceress would take the child away.
The baby came out completely bald but the mother, so foolish about the rapunzel earlier, saw that the child would never be like herself (vain with beautiful, long, golden hair) and so rejected it. The husband/father was terribly sad at this because he would have loved his daughter no matter what and his wife's foolishness took the baby away from them. :(
So the sorceress raised Rapunzel (in a different town, of course) with love and eventually Rapunzel made some good friends despite her looking differently. The best friend she had was the tinker (Mr. Jones) and his adopted son Harry. When she turned sixteen a sickness in a nearby town caused Rapunzel and the sorceress to move out of the area before the villagers came with pitchforks for the sorceress. They traveled with Mr. Jones and Harry to a magicked tower where the sorceress' daughter by blood was held hostage. The two girls were of a similar age but not alike at all; opposites in most ways. For where Rapunzel was bald, the girl, Rue, had beautifully long golden hair that let them climb into the tower.
The day is saved (finally) when Rapunzel gives her name to Rue and Rue gives her heart to a passing prince. Of course Rapunzel (now nameless) had already given her heart to Harry. The girl formerly-known-as-Rapunzel took the new name of Susan. And Harry and Susan lived happily ever after. :)
This was not my favorite of the 'Once Upon a Time' series by a longshot but then I've never thought that the story of Rapunzel was terribly good either. Why did the mother HAVE TO HAVE the lettuce? I know pregnant women get cravings but geez, have some ice cream instead. It'd be more believable... And allowing people to climb up your hair just never seemed like a smart thing to me. She must have gotten sick of jokes like 'Well that's using your head!' The Rapunzel of fairy tales just never seemed like a smart or worthwhile character. She was a paper princess with not a lot of substance. It's a little bit sad but some of that carried over and into this story too. Rue wasn't a very fleshed out person and were hardly on a first name basis with many of the other characters. Parts of it dragged on while others happened so fast I wasn't sure what was going on anymore. I was truly confused about why Rapunzel had to give up her name.
I've got several more of this series to read so I'm hoping there are still a bunch of good ones.
This is not a normal story about Rapunzel. We know this within the first several pages of the book because the child named Rapunzel is bald and remains that way. So you know right off that this is no run-of-the-mill child unfortunate enough to get stuck in a tower for most of her life.
This Rapunzel starts out normally enough. Her mother had to have a certain variety of parsley/lettuce known as rapunzel and sent her husband next door to gather some. However, since their next door neighbor was a sorceress the devoted husband thought that he would have a better chance of getting the parsley if he stole it. This is where we know the story has gone awry because the sorceress is kind and allows the woman to have all the rapunzel she desired and in return, they must love their child no matter what because if they don't, the sorceress would take the child away.
The baby came out completely bald but the mother, so foolish about the rapunzel earlier, saw that the child would never be like herself (vain with beautiful, long, golden hair) and so rejected it. The husband/father was terribly sad at this because he would have loved his daughter no matter what and his wife's foolishness took the baby away from them. :(
So the sorceress raised Rapunzel (in a different town, of course) with love and eventually Rapunzel made some good friends despite her looking differently. The best friend she had was the tinker (Mr. Jones) and his adopted son Harry. When she turned sixteen a sickness in a nearby town caused Rapunzel and the sorceress to move out of the area before the villagers came with pitchforks for the sorceress. They traveled with Mr. Jones and Harry to a magicked tower where the sorceress' daughter by blood was held hostage. The two girls were of a similar age but not alike at all; opposites in most ways. For where Rapunzel was bald, the girl, Rue, had beautifully long golden hair that let them climb into the tower.
The day is saved (finally) when Rapunzel gives her name to Rue and Rue gives her heart to a passing prince. Of course Rapunzel (now nameless) had already given her heart to Harry. The girl formerly-known-as-Rapunzel took the new name of Susan. And Harry and Susan lived happily ever after. :)
This was not my favorite of the 'Once Upon a Time' series by a longshot but then I've never thought that the story of Rapunzel was terribly good either. Why did the mother HAVE TO HAVE the lettuce? I know pregnant women get cravings but geez, have some ice cream instead. It'd be more believable... And allowing people to climb up your hair just never seemed like a smart thing to me. She must have gotten sick of jokes like 'Well that's using your head!' The Rapunzel of fairy tales just never seemed like a smart or worthwhile character. She was a paper princess with not a lot of substance. It's a little bit sad but some of that carried over and into this story too. Rue wasn't a very fleshed out person and were hardly on a first name basis with many of the other characters. Parts of it dragged on while others happened so fast I wasn't sure what was going on anymore. I was truly confused about why Rapunzel had to give up her name.
I've got several more of this series to read so I'm hoping there are still a bunch of good ones.
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