Customer Reviews

Spinners

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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!

Spinners was one of the best books I've ever read. When I first picked it up, I had no idea what it was about. After the first few pages, I was enthralled. I had no idea what was going to happen to the spinner, especially after he lost his girl. I could not believe it when he said his name. I picked up the book again not long ago, and I had almost forgotten what it was about. When I finished it, I was in love with it, and had fallen in love all over again. It was one of the best books I've ever read, and I will read it all over and over and over again.

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!

Spinners is a terrific retelling of the story of Rumpelstiltskin! (It has a great cover, too.) Spinners adds onto the original fairy tale a bit, showing you the perspective of the title character, who starts out as a talented tailor, who's poor but at the height of his life. He goes through a lot and you really have sympathize him. This book didn't end the way I hoped, and I'm trying not to spoil the book for you - but I must say, this book's ending was VERY tragic and . . . well, disappointing! I mean, the tailor never got what he deserved! However, this book provokes emotion as it was probably meant to and it does a great job, too. I highly recommend this book to others (at least above the age of 12)!

After having been completely impressed with Donna Jo Napoli's earlier efforts in retelling fairy tales (Zel, The Magic Circle) I was prepared to be thoroughly mesmerized by Spinners.

At first, I thought I would be. The beginning and middle are marvelous, full of Napoli's gorgeous, direct, present-tense prose. Saskia is an engaging heroine and the detailed descriptions of the beautiful threads she spins are surprisingly interesting. Her crippled father is also a moderately sympathetic character, and their disparate lives provide a nice contrast.

I loved Spinners until the last quarter or so of the book; the characters Napoli had developed suddenly start acting completely irrationally in order to follow the traditional story of Rumpelstiltskin. Where Napoli made the endings of Zel and The Magic Circle poignant by taking a compassionate view of the traditional villains, Rumpelstiltskin is not as sympathetic as he needs to be in order to make the ending work. Keeping the end so close to the traditional story in which he is so angered he stamps his leg through the floor just lacks the subtlety of which Napoli is capable.

Spinners is a novel saved from mediocrity by perhaps one conversation between the king and Saskia. Saskia asks the king if he's ever seen gold before, to which he replies that he has. She then asks if he's ever seen yarns like the ones she spins, to which he answers that he has not. Saskia concludes, "Then why should I spin straw into gold when I can create beauty of a kind no one's seen before?" Too bad the king is never fleshed out enough into a sympathetic person and remains a greedy and dislikable character. It seemed very out of character for Saskia to marry him.

Spinners is not by any means a bad book and succeeds as an interesting retelling, but it fails to be a moving and poignant piece. I would recommend reading Zel and The Magic Circle over Spinners. For another interesting twist on the Rumpelstiltskin story, try Vivian Vande Velde's short story, "Straw into Gold" found in Tales from the Brothers Grimm and Sisters Weird.

This story brings much insight into the otherwise unsensical fairy tale "Rumplestiltskin". This is not a "retelling" per se, but a "what if" kind of story. "What if" Rumplestilksin was not just a evil little man, "what if" the miller's daughter was forced to marry the king, "what if" there was some other connection between the girl and the gold-spinner besides the obvious one in the original tale? Filled with the "what if's", this book shows that Rumplestilksin is one to be pitied, that so is the miller's daughter to be pitied, for because of her father's pitiful lie, she lives the rest of her life in soulful misery - until the birth of her first child. But that joy also is threatened because of the promise she herself gave to Rumplestiltskin. Saskia up to that point is living only to survive - she has no love for her husband, only a semblence of love for her childhood friend and her father.

We find that both Rumplestiltskin and Saskia want to live, though they are both miserable yearning for something that they both lack in their lives - not because of their own shortcomings, however. They are both victims, and it wrenches your heart. A beautiful story with powerful themes - emotionally complex, easy to engage in.

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).

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.

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.

Donna Jo Napoli weaves yet another magical tale full of longing, sadness, and despair. This tale that she retells is the famous tale of Rumplestiltskin. It gives you the before life of Rumplestiltskin, before he was hideous, mean, and crippled. When he was fair, sweet, and strong, when he had a heart. Before he had to prove his love and loyalty and before he had that rubbed in his face, before wanting to please and making someone his own were his main priorities. Before his love turns him away for another man. When he was human.
It also gives the story of the young woman who spins, becomes entrapped by the king because of a stupid boast her father made. How the young woman comes to meet Rumplestiltskin and how he saves her and then they make that famous bargain of her firstborn for her life. This story will have you felling sympathetic for Rumple yet not liking him all the same. Great retelling if you ask me.