Rapunzel’s tale gets on a new twist as she emerges as a take-charge personality. After her “mom” locks her in her ghastly tower, she realizes her long hair can be very useful. She uses it to escape (no need of prince charming here, in fact, he happens along after she’s freed herself and she tricks him in to continuing to the empty tower!) and teams up with an annoying boy named Jack (of the beanstalk fame!) to seek revenge on her fake mom and release her real mom from a life of slavery.
It’s lots of fun and a powerful female lead. The graphic nature adds to the adventure, more of the rough and tumble fights and stuff happen in the illustrations, not in the text. Easy to follow graphics with distinction between the narrative description (in beige background rectangles) and the dialog (in white bubbles).
2/25/2009
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I second!
ReplyDeleteThis re-imagining of the Rapunzel story was a fun, fast-paced read with lots of action that will possibly even draw in some male readers. Rapunzel learns that she has resources that can be taken away, but she also has some that can not be taken away (like her intelligence, her compassion, and her ability to think quickly).
I'm an admirer of Shannon Hale's fantasies, but this graphic novel is over the top. Using just the husk of the Rapunzel story, she has thrown in Jack and the Beanstalk, the goose that laid golden eggs, a subtle nod to Cinderella, the wild, wild west, and even a jackalope. To me the whole plot just turns into a muddled mess.
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