Rapunzel

by Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm Narrated by Emily Christine

Overview

Step into the enchanting world of the Brothers Grimm with the timeless fairy tale of "Rapunzel," narrated by the captivating Emily Christine. This classic story tells the tale of a beautiful young girl with long, golden hair, who is confined to a tall tower by a wicked sorceress.

As Rapunzel grows, her hair becomes longer and longer, eventually reaching lengths that allow a prince to climb up to her window and discover her hidden away. The tale unfolds with themes of love, resilience, and the struggle for freedom, as Rapunzel and the prince devise a plan to escape the sorceress's clutches.

Emily Christine's mesmerizing narration brings this beloved fairy tale to life, capturing the whimsy and wonder of the story while immersing listeners in the lush, magical forest and the tower that holds Rapunzel captive. Her expressive performance ensures that every listener, young and old, will be enchanted by this enduring classic.

Perfect for family listening, bedtime stories, or a nostalgic revisit to childhood favorites, "Rapunzel" is an essential addition to any audiobook collection. Join us on this magical journey and experience the Brothers Grimm's timeless tale like never before.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Zelinsky (Swamp Angel) does a star turn with this breathtaking interpretation of a favorite fairy tale. Daringlyand effectivelymimicking the masters of Italian Renaissance painting, he creates a primarily Tuscan setting. His Rapunzel, for example, seems a relative of Botticelli's immortal red-haired beauties, while her tower appears an only partially fantastic exaggeration of a Florentine bell tower. For the most part, his bold experiment brilliantly succeeds: the almost otherworldly golden light with which he bathes his paintings has the effect of consecrating them, elevating them to a grandeur befitting their adoptive art-historical roots. If at times his compositions and their references to specific works seem a bit self-conscious, these cavils are easily outweighed by his overall achievement. The text, like the art, has a rare complexity, treating Rapunzel's imprisonment as her sorceress-adopted mother's attempt to preserve her from the effects of an awakening sexuality. Again like the art, this strategy may resonate best with mature readers. Young children may be at a loss, for example, when faced with the typically well-wrought but elliptical passage in which the sorceress discovers Rapunzel's liaisons with the prince when the girl asks for help fastening her dress (as her true mother did at the story's start): " `It is growing so tight around my waist, it doesn't want to fit me anymore.' Instantly the sorceress understood what Rapunzel did not." On the other hand, with his sophisticated treatment, Zelinsky demonstrates a point established in his unusually complete source notes: that timeless tales like Rapunzel belong to adults as well as children. Ages 5-up. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

As with her artwork for The Emperor's New Clothes, Duntze's fanciful illustrations add enchanting new dimensions to this well-loved tale. A wordless spread of the witch's glorious garden makes manifest the compulsion by her pregnant neighbor to secure its contents-though she will come to rue the price (her baby, Rapunzel). The witch, meanwhile, looks human from the waist up, with beefy bare arms and white hair pulled back in unusual buns, but her dress is fashioned from large cabbage leaves, home to slugs, snails and a frog, and partly concealing long, snake-like tentacles. Duntze plays with dimensions to create a sense of fairyland enchantment. Huge human teeth crown the walls around the witch's garden, while inside (obscured from the neighbors' view), dandelion weeds loom large. Layers of gold and rust-colored carpets give Rapunzel's lonely tower cell a cozy feel, as do the yellow pear on which she sits, the enormous snail that serves as her bed, and the stuffed animals that keep her company. The bleak wilderness into which the witch banishes Rapunzel (after learning of the prince's visits) markedly contrasts with the opulence of previous settings, emphasizing the witch's cruelty. In the final scene, the prince returns with Rapunzel and their children to his kingdom, which Duntze portrays as a formal garden set under towering strawberry plants, bringing the visual theme full circle. The arresting art abounds with sensuality and charm, making this version a welcome reimagining of a classic tale. Ages 4-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Gr 1-3-- More succinct and effective than Rowland's discursive Rapunzel (Calico Bks, 1989), Ehrlich's version preserves the essence of the tale (while omitting the illegitimate twins and a retributive fate for the witch). Events are somewhat telescoped (the father is caught on the second night, and Rapunzel agrees to marry the prince on his first visit), but what is lost in suspense is gained in pace. In Waldherr's clear, soft, colored-pencil drawings, blues and greens set off Rapunzel's red-gold tresses. The witch is such a slender and attractive senior that her traditionally evil behavior is rather a shock. The layout is notable: each vignette is edged by either a landscape or a floral design linked to the story. Unlike the dark and crowded borders in Rogasky's Rapunzel (Holiday, 1987), illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman, Waldherr's light-filled frames alternately focus in and open out the narrative. Her romantic style is reminiscent of the Pre-Raphaelites--even, unfortunately, down to the occassional awkwardness in anatomy and pose. --Patricia Dooley, University of Washington, Seattle

Book Review Digest

European illustrator Dusikova interprets the familiar fairy tale with dreamy, dark watercolors. Observed by cats, butterflies, and birds, Rapunzel, the witch, and the king's son play out the story. Unfortunately, the second page of text, set against a charcoal background, is difficult to read. Predictably, the witch has a long nose, Rapunzel is demure and blond, and the prince is boyishly handsome. Dusikova's forte is her exquisite, misty landscape art. ...Bell's translation is for the most part, faithful to the traditional story. Only the twins have been removed, perhaps to suit the sensibilities of those opposed to unwed motherhood.

Kirkus Reviews

Exquisite paintings in late Italian Renaissance style illumine this hybrid version of a classic tale.

As Zelinsky (The Wheels on the Bus, 1990, etc.) explains in a long source note, the story's Italian oral progenitor went through a series of literary revisions and translations before the Brothers Grimm published their own take; he draws on many of these to create a formal, spare text that is more about the undercurrents between characters than crime and punishment. Feeling "her dress growing tight around her waist" a woman conceives the desire for an herb from the neighboring garden—rendered in fine detail with low clipped hedges, elaborate statuary and even a wandering pangolin—that causes her to lose her child to a witch. Ensconced for years in a tower, young Rapunzel meets the prince, "marries" him immediately, is cast into the wilderness when her own dress begins to tighten, gives birth to twins, and cures her husband's blindness with her tears at their long-awaited reunion. Suffused with golden light, Zelinsky's landscapes and indoor scenes are grandly evocative, composed and executed with superb technical and emotional command. (Picture book/folklore. 8-10) Exquisite paintings in late Italian Renaissance style illumine this hybrid version of a classic tale.

As Zelinsky (The Wheels on the Bus, 1990, etc.) explains in a long source note, the story's Italian oral progenitor went through a series of literary revisions and translations before the Brothers Grimm published their own take; he draws on many of these to create a formal, spare text that is more about the undercurrents between characters than crime and punishment. Feeling "her dress growing tight around her waist" a woman conceives the desire for an herb from the neighboring garden—rendered in fine detail with low clipped hedges, elaborate statuary and even a wandering pangolin—that causes her to lose her child to a witch. Ensconced for years in a tower, young Rapunzel meets the prince, "marries" him immediately, is cast into the wilderness when her own dress begins to tighten, gives birth to twins, and cures her husband's blindness with her tears at their long-awaited reunion. Suffused with golden light, Zelinsky's landscapes and indoor scenes are grandly evocative, composed and executed with superb technical and emotional command. (Picture book/fol

Product Details

BN ID:	2940190833492
Publisher:	Anthony Pica Productions, LLC
Publication date:	08/07/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

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