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Description
When a miller's daughter is forced by a king to spin straw into gold, she makes a desperate deal with a mysterious little man in this masterfully retold fairy tale.
Once upon a time there was a clever girl with a not-so-clever father. When her father claims she can spin straw into gold, the king forces the girl to perform this impossible task. She has no other choice than to accept a strange deal from a mysterious little man. But when he arrives and attempts to collect the debt, the fiendish trickster Rumpelstiltskin discovers that he is the one who has been tricked!
This is the second in the groundbreaking new collection of retold fairy tales crafted by Mac Barnett and paired with the stunning folk-art illustrations of Carson Ellis. With signature pacing and wit, this retelling of Rumpelstiltskin introduces the classic story to a new generation of readers with subversive storytelling and narrative voice.
Picture books Folklore Fairy tales Germany Folk tales
The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Starred Review
Barnett's retelling balances the modern and postmodern, honoring the cadence of the traditional tale with sly humor and seamless asides... Ellis' gouache illustrations show a heroine full of wry resignation, sometimes overwhelmed by the larger compositions surrounding her in acknowledgment of the folkloric pattern she can’t escape.
School Library Journal
Starred Review
This is an excellent book from a stellar team, for children who enjoy comprehensive fairy tales and any collection looking for updated versions of beloved classics.
Copyright 2026 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Kirkus
Starred Review
''Two acclaimed creators retell a fairy-tale classic. Employing a conversational style, Barnett offers a fresh and immensely entertaining take on an old story... Deeply familiar but infused with 21st-century smarts; expect cries for repeated reads.''
ALA/Booklist
Starred Review
''...Theirs is a pleasing alchemy, with Barnett employing conversational language anchored in understated humor and Ellis' rich gouache illustrations evoking both wood-block prints and Renaissance portraiture. The original story, as told by the Brothers Grimm, isn't much altered here; rather, it is filled out with creative details that enrich the narrative and give context to the life of the woman at the center of the whole debacle...Ellis sets the historical tone with her fantastic artwork...the landscapes are decidedly lush...''
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review
Following his reimagining of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff," Barnett retells "Rumpelstiltskin," his wisecracking lines (the miller is "a nice enough guy, but he had a big mouth") joined by the medieval elegance of gouache spreads by Caldecott Honoree Ellis. After the miller jests to the visiting king about his own daughter's ability to spin gold from straw, the daughter is shown hunched in despair within a royal room. The small, cunning man who appears out of nowhere will spin the king's ever-larger piles of straw into gold, but he demands rewards in return--she offers first her jewelry, then her firstborn. After she weds the king and bears a child, the little man promises mercy if she can guess his name. A list is made and read aloud, and hilarity bubbles to the surface ("Jay? Shawn?" "No! No!" "Danladi? Octavius? Cuthbert?" "No! No! No!") as the scroll of names is shown drifting and looping around the page. Short, punchy text juices the tale's momentum ("Deal," the girl replies to the wily man's offers), while portraits trace the miller's daughter's journey from frog-catching child to regal royal and back again in this haunting tale about the power of knowing someone's name. Most characters are portrayed with pale skin. Ages 4-8. (Feb.)
Copyright 2025 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.
Mac Barnett is the author of several books for children, including Caldecott Honor Books Extra Yarn and Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, both illustrated by Jon Klassen; President Taft Is Stuck in the Bath, illustrated by Chris Van Dusen; Leo: A Ghost Story, illustrated by Christian Robinson; and the Terrible Two series, cowritten with Jory John and illustrated by Kevin Cornell. Mac Barnett lives in California. Isabelle Arsenault is the creator of Alpha and the illustrator of several other picture books, including Jane, the Fox, and Me by Fanny Britt, a New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Children's Book of the Year; Captain Rosalie by Timothée de Fombelle; and Cloth Lullaby: The Woven Life of Louise Bourgeois by Amy Novesky. Isabelle Arsenault lives in Montreal.
