Wednesday, March 19, 2014

A Month of Rapunzel: Guest Review: Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale (no spoilers)


It is my honor to introduce my good friend Deb from Debz Bookshelf. She is the person who originally got me interested in fairy tale retellings and I have been in love with them ever since. Deb also has a deep love for Rapunzel and has agreed to do several guest posts this month. I immensely enjoy her blog and every post she writes so enjoy Deb's review of Rapunzel's Revenge, a book I didn't get around to reading this month. 


Book: Rapunzel's Revenge
Authors: Shannon and Dean Hale
Publication: August 5th, 2008
Summary (From Goodreads):
Once upon a time, in a land you only think you know, lived a little girl and her mother . . . or the woman she "thought" was her mother.

 Every day, when the little girl played in her pretty garden, she grew more curious about what lay on the other side of the garden wall . . . a rather enormous garden wall.

 And every year, as she grew older, things seemed weirder and weirder, until the day she finally climbed to the top of the wall and looked over into the mines and desert beyond. 

Newbery Honor-winning author Shannon Hale teams up with husband Dean Hale and brilliant artist Nathan Hale (no relation) to bring readers a swashbuckling and hilarious twist on the classic story as you've never seen it before. Watch as Rapunzel and her amazing hair team up with Jack (of beanstalk fame) to gallop around the wild and western landscape, changing lives, righting wrongs, and bringing joy to every soul they encounter.



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Rapunzel’s Revenge is one of those books you can’t help but fall in love with. It’s such a charming take on Rapunzel’s tale, but with a wild west twist, and laden with laugh-out-loud humor. It’s a graphic novel, aimed at transitioning readers, but it has many levels of humor and depth to make it such a perfect book for readers at any level.
I love how the pictures and words work so well together. I generally don’t enjoy graphic novels, but this one is exceptional. You really do need to pay attention to both aspects of storytelling to be able to appreciate to whole story. The greatest parts are hidden away in the details.
I’m not kidding when I say that it’s funny. It really is super funny. All three artists involved are hilarious! I can’t imagine how much fun they must’ve had working on this project together. You can tell that they made a seriously diligent effort, and it definitely paid off.
The characters are all exceptional. They all have strong personalities, and the banter between them, especially Rapunzel and Jack (of beanstalk fame) is so funny. I would love to hang out with them in real life (well, maybe not any dangerous bandits…) and get to know their larger than life personalities.
I loved seeing how the traditional elements of Rapunzel worked their way into this new story, in the most unexpected and brilliant ways. Braids for lassos? Of course! A super tall treehouse tower? Awesome! I could go on and on about how amazing this story is, but I’ll leave that for you to discover.









2 comments:

  1. Love the cover. Plus the description is really great. I shall add it to my to-read list =)

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    Replies
    1. I need to read this one myself. I'm so excited to get around to it.

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