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.
Rapunzel ANNOTATION A retelling of a folktale in which a beautiful girl with long golden hair is kept imprisoned in a lonely tower by a sorceress. Includes a note on the origins of the story.
FROM THE PUBLISHER Trapped in a tower with no door, Rapunzel is allowed to see no one but the sorceress who has imprisoned her-until the day a young prince hears her singing to the forest birds. . . . The timeless tale of Rapunzel is vividly and magnificently brought to life through Paul O. Zelinsky's powerful sense of narrative and his stunning oil paintings. SYNOPSIS
An illustrated retelling of the fairy tale, based not on Grimm's classic version but upon a 17th-century French tale. This version of "Rapunzel" tells the story of a mother who strongly resists her child's inevitable growth.
FROM THE CRITICS Publishers Weekly Zelinsky (Swamp Angel) does a star turn with this breathtaking interpretation of a favorite fairy tale. Daringlyand effectivelymimicking the masters of Italian Renaissance painting, he creates a primarily Tuscan setting. His Rapunzel, for example, seems a relative of Botticelli's immortal red-haired beauties, while her tower appears an only partially fantastic exaggeration of a Florentine bell tower. For the most part, his bold experiment brilliantly succeeds: the almost otherworldly golden light with which he bathes his paintings has the effect of consecrating them, elevating them to a grandeur befitting their adoptive art-historical roots. If at times his compositions and their references to specific works seem a bit self-conscious, these cavils are easily outweighed by his overall achievement. The text, like the art, has a rare complexity, treating Rapunzel's imprisonment as her sorceress-adopted mother's attempt to preserve her from the effects of an awakening sexuality. Again like the art, this strategy may resonate best with mature readers. Young children may be at a loss, for example, when faced with the typically well-wrought but elliptical passage in which the sorceress discovers Rapunzel's liaisons with the prince when the girl asks for help fastening her dress (as her true mother did at the story's start): " `It is growing so tight around my waist, it doesn't want to fit me anymore.' Instantly the sorceress understood what Rapunzel did not." On the other hand, with his sophisticated treatment, Zelinsky demonstrates a point established in his unusually complete source notes: that timeless tales like Rapunzel belong to adults as well as children. Ages 5-up. (Oct.)
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.)
Children's Literature - Marilyn Courtot The cover of this book is so beautiful that you can almost feel the texture of Rapunzel's golden tresses as she gazes into the distance from her isolated tower. This variant on the story is immensely satisfying, and the lengthy author's note provides a provenance and rationale for Zelinsky's retelling. The magnificent oils transport readers to the Italian countryside. The fabrics, skin textures, hair, and the detailed interiors are exquisitely rendered. Zelinsky will certainly have his wish to inspire readers to seek out more Renaissance art fulfilled. Readers cannot help but want to see more art like that which he has created. Caldecott Medal winner.
Children's Literature - Susie Wilde Zelinsky is both the illustrator and reteller of this fairy tale, which was the recipient of the Caldecott Medal. His Renaissance portrayal of the story glows with a richness of detailing and lighting that show a close study of the old masters. His psychological perspectives are also fascinating. In this version, the witch is a sorceress who creates a tower "narrow on the outside, but on the inside it was large with many elegant rooms," a place to keep Rapunzel safe. But when a prince discovers her, the astonished Rapunzel "felt a happiness she had never known." They hold a marriage ceremony alone in the tower and soon thereafter, Rapunzel is surprised, as her dress grows tight around the waist. The distraught sorceress cries "I thought I had kept you safe, away from the whole world, but you have betrayed me!" She becomes a sympathetic character, transforming the tale into the archetypal struggle of a parent who can no longer prevent a child's unavoidable growing up. This book may wind up on banned book lists. Most of us will allow that there was a marriage of sorts, but I suspect it won't satisfy those of rigid morality. I applaud the selection committee, not only for choosing a book whose art shines in text, illustration, and thoughtfulness, but who considered art before public opinion.
School Library Journal K-Gr 3--An elegant and sophisticated retelling that draws on early French and Italian versions of the tale. Masterful oil paintings capture the Renaissance setting and flesh out the tragic figures. (Nov.)
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