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FOLKTALES AND NURSERY RHYMES
Barnett, Mac

Rumpelstiltskin

48 pp. | Scholastic/Orchard | February, 2026 | Trade ISBN 9781338673852 $19.99
(2) K-3 Illustrated by Carson Ellis. Barnett and Ellis honor tradition while finding contemporary notes in their retelling of “Rumpelstiltskin.” The first spread establishes a droll narrator with a colloquial delivery: “Her father, a poor miller, was a nice enough guy, but he had a big mouth. He told wild stories and bragged all the time. Here, I’ll give you an example.” Chatty text appears in white space alongside saturated gouache paintings and black-and-white spot illustrations, recalling picture-book design from the first half of the twentieth century. The miller’s daughter isn’t limited by early-twentieth-century ideas about beauty or behavior, though: this future queen is solid, barefoot, and busy whittling and capturing tadpoles (though the art shows her with a frog). When locked into a series of rooms full of straw by the greedy king, she makes her successive bargains with the mysterious little man who spins straw into gold, ultimately promising him her firstborn child. When the man returns a year later to claim the baby, Barnett spins out the guessing of names (“Nidnod? Wizzle-kicks? Sheepshanks? Laceleg?”), adding humor while emphasizing the protagonist’s determination to keep her child. In many tellings the miller’s daughter learns Rumpelstiltskin’s name from a messenger; here, on the night before her final opportunity to guess, she takes her son for a walk, accidentally discovers the little man’s name, outwits him, and lives her life in peace. A satisfying version of an oft-told tale.
Reviewer: Adrienne L. Pettinelli | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2026

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