Surely among the most original and gifted of children's book illustrators, Paul O. Zelinsky has once again with unmatched emotional authority, control of space, and narrative capability brought forth a unique vision for an age-old tale. Few artists at work today can touch the level at which his paintings tell a story and exert their hold. Zelinsky's retelling of Rapunzel reaches back beyond the Grimms to a late-seventeenth-century French tale by Mlle. la Force, who based hers on the Neapolitan tale Petrosinella in a collection popular at the time. The artist understands the story's fundamentals to be about possessiveness,confinement, and separation, rather than about punishment and deprivation. Thus the tower the sorceress gives Rapunzel here is not a desolate, barren structure of denial but one of esoteric beauty on the outside and physical luxury within. And the world the artist creates through the elements in his paintings the palette, control of light, landscape, characters, architecture, interiors, costumes speaks to us not of an ugly witch who cruelly imprisons a beautiful young girl, but of a mother figure who powerfully resists her child's inevitable growth, and of a young woman and man who must struggle in the wilderness for the self-reliance that is the true beginning of their adulthood. As ever, and yet always somehow in newly arresting fashion, Paul O. Zelinsky's work thrillingly shows us the events of the story while guiding us beyond them to the truths that have made it endure.
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In older versions of the classic tale Rapunzel, it always seemed improbable that a grown man could scale a tower using only his beloved's hair. Not so in Paul O. Zelinsky's Caldecott Medal-winning version of Rapunzel. Here, Rapunzel's reddish-blonde mane is thick with waves and braids, and cascades like a waterfall down the walls of her isolation tower. In Zelinsky's able hands it's easy to believe that a prince would harbor no hesitations about scrambling up our fair heroine's hair.
Of course, this is not the work of an amateur--Zelinsky's lush versions of Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, and Swamp Angel all earned him Caldecott Honors. His gorgeous, Italian Renaissance-styled illustrations are characterized by warm golden tones and the mesmerizing sensation of trompe l'oeuil. Not only does he have the touch of a world-class illustrator, Zelinsky has also proven himself a master storyteller. We are frightened when the sorceress demands to take the baby Rapunzel, we are alarmed when the flowing locks are cruelly shorn, and we rejoice when the prince and his now modest-haired love are reunited. The notes at the back of Rapunzel reveal his careful scholarship regarding the long history of the story (tracing its origins and transformations from Italy to France and finally to Germany and the Grimm brothers)--work that no doubt contributed to his clean, compelling version of the age-old tale. Children will be captivated by the magical story and evocative pictures and adults will delight in the fresh feel of a well-loved legend. (Click to see a sample spread. Illustration © 1997 by Paul O. Zelinsky, published by Dutton Children's Books, a division of Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers.) (Ages 4 and older)
From Publishers Weekly
In our Best Book citation, PW said, "A breathtaking interpretation gives the fairy tale new art-historical roots, with illustrations that daringly-and effectively-mimic the masters of Italian Renaissance painting." Ages 5-up. (Oct.)
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The rare non-Disneyfied fairy tale,
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This review is from: Rapunzel (Caldecott Medal Book) (Hardcover)
The winner of the Caldecott Medal, "Rapunzel" is one of the most lush and beautiful stories ever created for children. Carrying many of the distinctive Zelinsky elements (staggered perspectives, reoccurring background characters, gorgeous lighting, etc.) the book is a joy to look at. Each picture evokes the spirit of the Renaissance, from the first tableau (the husband and wife feeling her pregnant stomach in contentment) to the last (the loving family poses with the cherubim-like children). The text is a little more racy than your average children's picture book. Zelinsky doesn't shy away from the fact that Rapunzel is pregnant when the witch learns of her illicit relations, though he does legitimize the girl's newfound glow with a hasty "marriage" of the prince to Rapunzel in her tower. Sans priest, no less. The book is also remarkable for the dramatic shift that occurs in the character of the witch. A scowling ghoul in one picture, she transforms into an almost nunlike character when receiving the little Rapunzel baby. One might well ask what happens to the witch after she casts Rapunzel and her prince into the desert, but Zelinsky doesn't feel this is worth discussing. A perfect book for storytelling, as the pictures are colorful and easy to see from a distance. Would pair well with his other oil painted fairy tale "Rumplestiltskin".
36 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Be ready to explain the birds and bees!,
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This review is from: Rapunzel (Caldecott Medal Book) (Hardcover)
This book is beautifully illustrated and well written, but the text may be too mature for many young children. I bought this for my four-year-old daughter. Reading it to her the first time, I was left a bit bemused when, on one page, Rapunzel is visited in the tower at night by the prince and then, on the next page, she's pregnant:
"'Rapunzel said, "If you please, Stepmother, help me with my dress, it doesn't want to fit me anymore.' Instantly the sorceress understood what Rapunzel did not. 'Oh, you wicked child!' she shrieked. I thought I had kept you safe, away from the whole world...'" I thought other parents might appreciate the warning, since you can't preview all the pages when buying a book online.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rapunzel the Beautiful,
This review is from: Rapunzel (Picture Puffin Books) (Paperback)
There are many illustrated versions of Rapunzel on the children's market, but surely none can compare with Paul O. Zelinsky's Caldecott version.
As he explains in "A Note about Rapunzel" in the back of the book, he traced the history of the story and discovered its roots in Italy, determining then to set his version within the artwork of Renaissance Italy. Rapunzel is the German word for a salad green and root with a flavor between argula and watercress. In some stories the green is parsley called rampion. In this version a young pregnant wife begins craving rapunzel which she sees outside her window. I must have it, must have it, she tells her husband, knowing that the garden in the courtyard below belongs to a sorceress. She has her rapunzel, but the witch catches the husband stealing it and makes him promise the baby to her. As the story goes, the sorceress locks the pre-adolescent child in a campanile with no doors and only Rapunzel's long red-gold tresses as a rope to the top. The prince finds her, learns the secret to the top, avows his love, and she gets pregnant. The story ends happily, of course, following the traditional plot line. What sets this version so very far apart from its siblings is the glorious Renaissance-like artwork. Flowing clothing, long, wavy hair, dark and silvery plant life, blue and gray haze in the background, particular people groupings, perfectly balanced settings, Roman ruins--all traditional aspects of Renaissance art are depicted. One little intrusion into this Renaissance setting is a kitten whose growth is also measured by Rapunzel's. This Siamese is in almost every frame with Rapunzel all the way to the end which is a cozy tableau of family bliss. This Rapunzel belongs in every home with a child and adults who appreciate the joy of children's books.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Long ago, there lived a man and a woman who had no children. Read the first page New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Long ago, there lived a man and a woman who had no children. Read the first page New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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