Skip to main content

Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin

By

Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin
By Liesl Shurtliff
Alfred A. Knopf, 2013. Fiction.

Twelve-year-old Rump, who lived in town were your name determined your destiny, lived up to his name. He was short and unremarkable but he knew if he could figure out his true full name—the name his mother intended to give him but was unable to finish saying before she died giving birth to him—he could be somebody. One day he discovers his mother’s old spinning wheel and his ability to turn straw into gold. What he thought would bring relief to his dire conditions, giving him a way to provide for his sickly grandmother and to him, only brings complications when he has to turn his gold over for any price given—including a princess’s baby. When his grandmother dies, he goes in search for his real name and to find a way to end his curse of the gold to his mother’s homeland and comes across other interesting fairy tale creatures along the way that also get a bad reputation in fairy tales.

Humorous leisurely take on the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale that makes him the hero, not the villain. Fans of fractured fairy tales and Shannon Hale’s works will be pleased to add this to their reading list. Maxwell Glick’s narration has the perfect tone and pace for Rump’s character and is available to listen to on Overdrive.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall

By
A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall By Jasmine Warga New York: Harper, 2024. Fiction. 211 pages. A painting has been stolen from the Penelope L. Brooks Museum and sixth-grader Rami Ahmed is worried he's the main suspect. His mother works at the museum as the lead custodian and Rami spends a lot of time hanging out at the museum while she works. On the day the painting went missing, the only people there were the security guard Ed, the cleaning crew, and Rami. Then, a mysterious girl appears in the museum. She floats around from room to room and only Rami can see her -- and she looks exactly like the girl from the missing painting. To prove his innocence and help figure out who the floating girl is, Rami partners up with an aspiring sleuth at school named Veda and the two dive into unexpected situations as they try to solve the mystery. This is a cozy mystery that is focused mostly on characters and ambiance and only a little on the mystery itself. Don't read this book if yo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Faker

By
Faker By Gordon Korman New York: Scholastic Press, 2024. Fiction. 214 pages. 12-year-old Trey is used to starting over at a new school -- he has the routine perfectly memorized: make new friends, introduce his dad to the wealthy parents of his new friends, and "Houdini" themselves out of there before they get caught running their latest scam. Trey's dad is a master con artist, and Trey has just been promoted to full-partner. Their new scheme for the next big score brings them to the affluent suburb of Boxelder, TN where Trey's dad has cooked up a fake electric car company for investors to buy into. The only problem is that Trey is starting to grow tired of moving around and never putting down roots, especially after forming a fast friendship with Logan and developing a crush on Kaylee, a socially conscious girl in his class. As Trey longs for a normal life, is there any way he can convince his dad to get out of the family business? Gordon Korman is a perennial favorit...
Post a Comment
Read more