Rumpelstiltskin: From the German of the Brothers Grimm

I read the book Rumpelstiltskin. It is about a poor miller's daughter who is very kind. One day the miller sees the king and says, "My daughter can spin straw into gold" The king said" get her over her right away" So when she got there the king said" if you don't spin this straw into gold by tomorrow you will die" So the miller's daughter cried and cried until a strange person comes in and says" I will spin this straw into gold for you. But you need to give me something". So she does and the next day she goes to another room and he comes again. She gives him something again. Then the next day she goes to a bigger room and he comes back and says, "you will give me your first born baby So the next day she gets married to the king. She has a baby so the man comes back and she says" if I don't find out your name in three days you can take my baby. So she sends out a servant to find out the mans name. So the servant finds out his name it is Rumpelstiltskin. Then he comes and she says" is your name Rumpelstiltskin. Then he was never heard from again. I liked the book because it had bright detailed illustrations. I liked the picture of the king and the miller. The message is don't trust strangers because she talks to him. The theme is karma because he tricks her and then she tricks him. There is good vs. evil because Rumpelstiltskin is bad and she is good. I know this because he tricks people. The conflict of person vs. person is interesting because she is ahead and then he is. It keeps going back and froth. I think kids should read this because it will teach them to not trust strangers. There are no more versions of this story that I have read.

I am Mary Sanders, 14 years old of Cambridge, Massachusetts. When I was in first grade, I remember my teacher reading to us aloud from this book. Even though, as a six-year-old little girl, I understood this tale perfectly, and I was fascinated by it, and have read this book, many times since, the first time the tale of Rumpelstiltskin was written. Well, it's about a poor, and of course, beautiful miller's daughter, who is held in the castle of the king who demands her to spin a certain amount of straw into gold. The girl has no knowledge whatsoever on how to do this, and the King told her if she failed to do as she was told she would die. Weeping terribly a little man comes to her telling her he will spin the straw into gold in exchange for something. She gives him her ring.The little man spins the straw into gold. Then, the king makes her spin it a second time, in exchange, the girl gives the man her necklace. However it happens a third time, and the girl runs out of items. The little man makes her promise she will give him her first child. She agrees, thinking that will never happen, and becomes the king's wife. She brings a boy in the world, and the little man shows up demanding the child. She weeps and out of pity the little man tells her he will give her three days to guess his name, and if she does, she can keep to kid. Well, two days go by and no luck with names. Then a servant of hers discovers the man's name is RUMPELTSTILKSKIN. She tells the little man and she is correct, and in rage he flees. But in this version, the little man flies off on a giant cooking spoon. In the real version he rips himself apart. This is a wonderful tale for children. Read it. It's great.

As previous reviews have noted, the illustrations are exquisite and quite out of the ordinary; instantly captivating and magical at first glance. My daughter is 3 and 1/2 and is riveted by the book. I feel confused at how strongly some of the readers feel about the book's "message." Yes, many of the characters are "bad" and it is morally ambiguous, but the sheer flight of fancy and imagination captured by the tale has intrigued and fascinated readers and listeners since the early 1800's. It's like a child's version of a scary movie without the macabre details, and even though Rumpelstiltskin himself is ugly and frightening even though he is actually "saving" the queen, the book and story's power coem from the fact that he is such an unusual character; not whether he is good or bad. Furthermore, the additional magical ideas of straw into gold, being locked up in a castle, servants running off in the middle of the night, and a little elfen man riding around on a spoon are bizarre and fanciful and elements like these fill much of the fairy tale genre for centuries. I say, get over the p.c. messages and concetrate on the fantasy and magic of the story that is so compelling to readers, especially with Zelinsky's magnificent pictures. Life is complicated, and so is the story - it doesn't try to answer all the questions and make everybody good/bad/punished/redeemed. That is not the point of this particular story. If you only want a story with a moral, it's true that this is not the book for you. If creative ideas and concepts that you could never think of yourself are what your looking for in a book, then it is the book for you!

This is a retelling of the famous children's "fairy" tale, first presented by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in the early 19th century. A young mother has to guess a gnome's name (he had been spinning straw into gold for her) in order to prevent him from taking her new-born babe. This book was a 1987 Caldecott Honor book (i.e., a runner-up to the Medal winner) for best illustrations in a book for children. Paul Zelinsky did considerable research to follow the original version of the tale and his art reflects the time period of the story. It is a beautiful book.

Este libro es una obra de arte en cuanto a su ilustración se refiere. Paul O. Zelinsky nos ha brindado un libro para disfrutar a plenitud, no sólo por la belleza de la ilustración, sino además por lo bien que encaja con el texto. Los detalles son efímeros. La redacción española es sencilla y fluída, no necesita más, la ilustración da todo lo demás. Es un libro para el disfrute no sólo de los niños sino también de los adultos. Es un libro para guardar y adorar. Pero desafortunadamente, nada es perfecto. La versión española, al mantener el titulo de "El Enano Saltarín", como ha sido habitualmente conocido dicho cuento por las publicaciones españolas, falló al no utilizar el nombre de Rumpelstilzchen en el momento adecuado. Esta falla deteriora un tanto la trama del cuento, al eliminarse uno de los aspectos fundamentales: el extraño nombre del hombrecillo, difícil de adivinar.(Referido al libro publicado por Dutton Children's Book).