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Spinners by Donna Jo Napoli and Richard Tchen
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Spinners By Donna Jo Napoli & Richard Tchen Release Date: Buy it Today! Puffin
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A tailor promised his beloved’s father that he would give her a wedding dress of gold, but he had no money for such thread. All he had was a stolen spinning wheel and a room full of straw. With tears and frantic spinning, and probably a touch of magic, he manages to created gold, the price of which is a crippled leg. And thus, he lost his sweetheart, who tauntingly dubbed him with a new name, Rumpelstiltskin.
The sweetheart bore a daughter, after quickly marrying the miller to hide her shame, but died in childbirth, leaving her daughter with only her wheel as a memory. Young Saskia learns to spin when money is tight and her step-father drinks himself into debt. And in her spinning skills, her father remembers a tale he once heard, of a man who spun straw into gold, and through his bragging, the greedy king hears of this feat. And the tale of Rumpelstiltskin is born.
Small and quick, this book could have just as easily have been a part of the Once Upon A Time series… except I didn’t feel that it added very much to the story of Rumplestiltskin. Spinnners follows the original tale very closely, and while it gives some expansion in the beginning to the characters, it seemed to come to a somewhat silly ending, giving up the beauty of the rest of the book in order to perfectly follow the Rumplestiltskin tale. I’d heard Napoli’s named mentioned many times as a writer I just had to try out, who wrote fairytale retellings that I’d enjoy, so I must say I’m a bit disappointed. The traditional characters are expanded and given backstories, but once Saskia gets locked in the room with straw, the tale could be taken directly out of Grimm’s collection.
The character of Rumpelstiltskin was well done. I felt many things about him: pity, displeasure, and understanding. While I felt like his part in the ending was a bit silly, he was still a fully fleshed out character. The miller’s daughter, on the other hand, didn’t strike me as all that intersting. Typical girl who has to give up everything to take care of the men in her life.
Language was this story’s strong point. Napoli and Tchen weave a beautiful and tragic tale for the most part, until it is forced back into the unrealistic ending of the original tale. I suppose the ending is a descent into Rumplestiltskin’s madness, and I can’t really think of a better way to end it, but still, him getting so mad that he breaks his foot through the floor, then ripping off the leg and jumping away, is just silly compared to the beauty of the rest of the book.
Ratings Reasons:
Action 2 - There wasn’t much physical action, and the pacing itself wasn’t particularly fast or slow.
Romance 2 - While this book was about love, it wasn’t really about romance. At first Saskia despises the king she is forced to marry, and towards the end it seems like she might love him, but this is never really built up or focused on. It’s not even really a side piece to the story of her and Rumplestiltskin.
Characters 3 1/2 - Some of the characters, like Rumplestiltskin, felt fleshed out and complex, but most of the side characters felt rather flat.
Overall 3 1/2 - I’d often had Napoli’s name mentioned to me as an author I would enjoy, but I didn’t feel much of anything for this book. Maybe it’s the co-author, but I just wasn’t very fond of it.
Extras:
Donna Jo Napoli has written quite a few fairytale retellings, and I’ve always had her recommended to me. I’m still willing to give her books a try, maybe I just didn’t click with this one. Some of her other young adult titles are: Hush: An Irish Princess’ Tale, Bound, Zel, Beast, Breath, The Magic Circle, Sirena, Fire in the Hills, Song of the Magdalene, The King of Mulberry Street, Daughter of Venice, and The Prince of the Pond.
Rumplestiltskin seems to be popping up a lot these days, as there are two new retellings out this year. A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth Bunce is getting a lot of buzz and The Crimson Thread (part of the Once Upon a Time Series) by Suzanne Weyn will be coming out later this year. I’m looking forward to both titles.
Here is SurLaLune’s annotated Rumpelstiltskin. I also found wikipedia to have some good analysis of the elements of the tale.
One element that I enjoyed about the book was the great descriptions of old fashioned spinning. Wikipedia came through for me again and has a great article on spinning wheels.
Parents: 13+ Mentions of premaritial sex, but nothing much objectionable beyond that. Since it’s a slower book, I don’t feel it would catch the attentions of most younger readers.
Oh, do try another of Napoli’s books. I recently read BEAST and HUSH and thought both were wonderful: her writing was beautiful and her world-building in particular exquisite. ZEL is on my to-be-read pile.
crichoux reply on March 3rd, 2008:
Yeah, I plan to give her a few more chances. Beast is on my to-read pile, though kind of far down.