Review: RAPUNZEL'S REVENGE by Shannon and Dean Hale

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hale, Shannon and Dean Hale. 2008. Rapunzel’s Revenge. Ill. by Nathan Hale. New York: Bloomsbury U.S.A. Children’s Books. ISBN 1-59990-070-X

2. PLOT SUMMARY
Rapunzel is no fading violet in this graphic novel version of the classic fairy tale. This Rapunzel has attitude, and is determined to get answers. Rapunzel is raised by Mother Gothel inside of a beautiful villa, but she wonders what is on the other side of the high walls surrounding the villa. One day she manages to look over the wall, and is horrified to find the dreadful conditions outside of the villa. Worse still, she discovers her real mother, who is forced to work in Mother Gothel’s mines.

Determined to make things right, Rapunzel confronts the woman who she now knows to be her kidnapper, only to be thrown into a high tower deep in a mysterious woods. With nothing to do but create tricks to perform with her hair, which is now growing ridiculously long, Rapunzel plots her escape. Finally her hair is long enough, and Rapunzel uses it as a rope to descend from her tower and make her getaway. Rapunzel forgoes the offer of help from this story’s version of prince charming, but later teams up with an outlaw named Jack, (of beanstalk folklore), and off they go to undo the evil Mother Gothel has done in the land and free Rapunzel’s mother.

3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Young readers will be vastly entertained by this new twist on an old tale. Shannon and Dean Hale bring to life a strong-willed female protagonist who is determined to right wrongs, and restore things to order. There is a touch of the southwest in this twisted fairy tale, as Rapunzel learns to use her long hair as a lasso, ropes and rides a wild boar, (until Prince Charming shoots it), whips guns from the hands of the bad guys with her long tresses, and fights off cantankerous coyotes. The witty, humorous dialogue and adventures make sense in the world the authors have created by mixing various fairy tales, and scenes straight from an old-west tall tale.

Rapunzel’s Revenge is told in entertaining captions with tongue-in-cheek style which is enhanced by the imaginative illustrations of Nathan Hale. For example, Rapunzel tells the reader that she managed to “lasso a tree and swing gracefully from her prison, climb down the tree’s branches, and land triumphantly on the forest floor”. The corresponding illustrations show her crashing into the tree, tumbling and falling through the breaking branches, and landing with a “splosh” in a pond at the forest floor. This amusing story with its humorous characters and magical graphics will become a favorite of the 5^th through 8^th grade readers who are its intended audience.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY: With its can-do heroine, witty dialogue and romantic ending, this graphic novel has something for nearly everybody. Ages 10-up.
ALAN REVIEW: While Rapunzel's Revenge is definitely the stuff of high adventure and the old West, it is very much a story about growing up female, taking chances, negotiating potentially dangerous landscapes, confronting cruelty and loss, and re-finding the nurture and comfort that can be had in love.
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL review: The dialogue is witty, the story is an enticing departure from the original, and the illustrations are magically fun and expressive.

5. CONNECTIONS
*Comparison/contrast: Students should read the original Grimm Brother’s version of Rapunzel and use a T-chart or Venn diagram to compare it to Rapunzel’s Revenge. For more challenge, they could also watch the movie Tangled, and compare all three.
*Students should choose a fairy tale they are familiar with and put their own twist on it. They can illustrate, use text boxes and show the protagonist from a different point of view.
* Other Graphic Novels
Hale, Dean and Shannon Hale. Calamity Jack. ISBN 9781599903736
Valentino, Serena. Once Upon a Time (Nightmares & Fairy Tales, Vol. 1). ISBN 9780943151878
Hoena.  Jack and the Beanstalk: The Graphic Novel. ISBN 1434208621