Revenge of a Beauty

 
 

Title: Rapunzel's Revenge

Author: Shannon and Dean Hale

Illustrator: Nathan Hale

Publishing Company: Bloomsbury, USA

Copyright: 2008

Pages: 144

Genre: Fantasy/Modern Folktale

I chose this book because of the title, and the cover of the book seemed very interesting to me. The book is about a girl (Rapunzel) being taken from her mother as a baby. She grows up in a villa surrounded by a huge wall, guards, servants, and Mother Gothel. She becomes curious one day about what is on the other side of the wall and decides to climb over it (or use a rope to swing over.) She meets one of the workers. They begin to talk, and Rapunzel’s dreams are finally making sense. She finds out that the worker is her real mother and Gothel was not. She confronts Gothel, who locks her away in a tree for four years until she escapes by using her long hair that had grown over the years. While in the tree, all she thinks about is freeing her mother from Gothel's camp. She meets a guy named Jack and his pet duck Goldy; they begin on a wild adventure back to Gothel villa to free her mother. After an exciting adventure, they make it to the villa, where the yearly Shindig Ball is happening; it is when all the cattle and farming folks pay Gothel their taxes and pretend they are thrilled she is in charge. Jack cause a distraction as Rapunzel look for her mother in the dungeon. After finding her mother, she is caught by the guard and Gothel cuts her hair off. As Gothel begins to say spells that cause vines to grow and capture everyone, Rapunzel breaks a growth magic bottle she finds that captures Gothel in a tree. The villa begins to come back to life, Jack and Rapunzel share their first kiss, and Goldy laid a golden egg.

The illustrations are done in cartoon graphic in a novel format with facial expressions and words in bubbles. The illustrator used pencil and coloring from Photoshop in bright realistic features. The use of visual elements such as the lines and colors create so much emphasis in the book.

I recommend this for second through sixth grade. I would use this to teach character education between Gothel, Jack, and Rapunzel.  This book can also be used as a way to discuss different comic book styles or in a compare and contrast lesson with the newspaper comics. (I love them). This could be used with some of the graphic novels without any dialogue to allow the students to add their input or twist to it. The use of a semantic map would be a great way to dissect each character. The use of plot, character, theme, setting, and style would be a good way to help students understand the story better. This book has some awards ALA 2009 Notable Children's book, Yalsa 2009 Great Graphic Novel for teens,  Eisner Award nomination, 2009 Leah Adezio Award for Most Kid-Friendly Work, Cybils Award, an Indiebound Next Pick, and YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults.