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Rapunzel: A Fairy Tale Adventure
Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair! That's what the witch says whenever she wants to climb up to the tower where she's imprisoned the beautiful girl. But one day, someone else climbs up—and changes Rapunzel's life forever.
64 pages, Hardcover
Published February 3, 2015
27 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 5, 2025
While this was a simple retelling of a classic fairy tale the illustrations make this story. If a picture is worth a thousand words then these drawings carry the book. I would encourage families to read this story to their 5 and 6 year olds but if it is for kids to read on their own, maybe 3rd grade level. Ask your children what lessons can they learn from this book? Have them draw their own illustrations for the story. Allow their imagination to grow.
October 21, 2021
Rapunzel: A Fairy Tale Adventure was adapted from the Brothers Grimm version by Giada Francia and beautifully illustrated by Francesca Rossi. I found this version at my local library and was drawn to it because it was not a picture book version of the classic tale. This version of Rapunzel has been adapted to be a longer early reader text appropriate for second grade readers and above. The version has language appropriate for the age range and holds true to the plot and message in an age-appropriate manner.
This version starts with Rapunzel’s parents living next door to a witch with a beautiful garden full of vegetables. The expecting mother craves the rapunzel from the garden for a salad and grows ill because she refuses to eat anything else. When her husband is caught stealing more rapunzel from the witch’s garden, the witch allows him to take the rapunzel in exchange for their first-born child. A few years after Rapunzel is born, the witch returns to take her away to the forest and becomes the rival to hero, Rapunzel. The witch claims that Rapunzel is an orphan and that she is Rapunzel’s grandmother. The witch loves Rapunzel and teaches her about potions, but also keeps her isolated in the forest. When Rapunzel is given permission to go into the forest on her own looking for ingredients for a potion, she meets the prince, the helper character. When Rapunzel returns home, the witch is furious. She casts a spell on a mushroom that grows into a tall tower which will imprison Rapunzel. She stays there for years with only the witch coming and going by calling the famous line, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!” Years later the prince returns and they try to come up with a plan to escape from the tower. As in many tales, the witch finds out, cuts off Rapunzel’s hair and uses it to trick the prince. But as with every version, good triumphs over evil. Rapunzel and the prince return to his kingdom to be married, find Rapunzel’s true parents, and live happily ever after.
I liked this version of Rapunzel because of the appeal for early readers. I will introduce this text to the second grade team at my school for use with the classic tales unit. During this unit, the students read different classic tales to learn about common elements of a classic fairy tale. I would recommend that the teachers either use this version as a book club text for students or as a read aloud that they could compare to other versions of Rapunzel to find similarities and differences. I think it would also be a great text to compare to the Disney movie Tangled. The book was published in 2014 and the illustration of Rapunzel bears a striking resemblance to the Disney version, although the plot is different and the Disney heroine is a stronger role model.
Overall, I thought this was a very age-appropriate version of Rapunzel to introduce to younger students. I could also see using it in high school to talk about how the intended audience of a text impacts what you include, leave out, and adapt from classic tales to make it accessible to more people.
This version starts with Rapunzel’s parents living next door to a witch with a beautiful garden full of vegetables. The expecting mother craves the rapunzel from the garden for a salad and grows ill because she refuses to eat anything else. When her husband is caught stealing more rapunzel from the witch’s garden, the witch allows him to take the rapunzel in exchange for their first-born child. A few years after Rapunzel is born, the witch returns to take her away to the forest and becomes the rival to hero, Rapunzel. The witch claims that Rapunzel is an orphan and that she is Rapunzel’s grandmother. The witch loves Rapunzel and teaches her about potions, but also keeps her isolated in the forest. When Rapunzel is given permission to go into the forest on her own looking for ingredients for a potion, she meets the prince, the helper character. When Rapunzel returns home, the witch is furious. She casts a spell on a mushroom that grows into a tall tower which will imprison Rapunzel. She stays there for years with only the witch coming and going by calling the famous line, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!” Years later the prince returns and they try to come up with a plan to escape from the tower. As in many tales, the witch finds out, cuts off Rapunzel’s hair and uses it to trick the prince. But as with every version, good triumphs over evil. Rapunzel and the prince return to his kingdom to be married, find Rapunzel’s true parents, and live happily ever after.
I liked this version of Rapunzel because of the appeal for early readers. I will introduce this text to the second grade team at my school for use with the classic tales unit. During this unit, the students read different classic tales to learn about common elements of a classic fairy tale. I would recommend that the teachers either use this version as a book club text for students or as a read aloud that they could compare to other versions of Rapunzel to find similarities and differences. I think it would also be a great text to compare to the Disney movie Tangled. The book was published in 2014 and the illustration of Rapunzel bears a striking resemblance to the Disney version, although the plot is different and the Disney heroine is a stronger role model.
Overall, I thought this was a very age-appropriate version of Rapunzel to introduce to younger students. I could also see using it in high school to talk about how the intended audience of a text impacts what you include, leave out, and adapt from classic tales to make it accessible to more people.
May 17, 2024
This traditional Literature book, “Rapunzel” was entertaining to read. I read the hardcopy of the book from the library from the “Europe,” section and it was released in 2015. This was written by none other than the famous brothers Grimm, who collected German folktales and was adapted by Giada Francia.
This version of Rapunzel was pretty different in some ways in comparison to the original version of the Brothers Grimm. There were slight changes such as the castle was a mushroom, she was placed in a cave instead of the desert, and so forth. The main difference in Giada’s version was the added events that happened to the witch, along with a surprise ending as well which made this book interesting to read.
This book is appropriate for grades 2-5. It would be a great way to teach children to learn that it isn’t good to want something so much that bad things can happen. It is a good way to introduce the word greed. The art work by Francesca Rossi, was simple and the watercolors she used were subtle. Most pages were mostly covered in words and others were both pages, side to side were filled with the gentle colors and pencil markings of her illustrations, with no words. It is always entertaining to see the different versions of fairy tales!
This version of Rapunzel was pretty different in some ways in comparison to the original version of the Brothers Grimm. There were slight changes such as the castle was a mushroom, she was placed in a cave instead of the desert, and so forth. The main difference in Giada’s version was the added events that happened to the witch, along with a surprise ending as well which made this book interesting to read.
This book is appropriate for grades 2-5. It would be a great way to teach children to learn that it isn’t good to want something so much that bad things can happen. It is a good way to introduce the word greed. The art work by Francesca Rossi, was simple and the watercolors she used were subtle. Most pages were mostly covered in words and others were both pages, side to side were filled with the gentle colors and pencil markings of her illustrations, with no words. It is always entertaining to see the different versions of fairy tales!
October 26, 2019
We read through the version of Rapunzel illustrated by Dusikova and compared it to the version illustrated by Duntze and this version. I liked how this version included some of Rapunzel's life before she met the prince and how the tower was created by a cursed mushroom. The students seemed to be relieved that the witch dies in this version and that Rapunzel is reunited with her parents.
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June 16, 2022It's a little shocking to see how many people are giving this poor reviews because it's not like the Disney version. Disney didn't invent Rapunzel!
I can only imagine how upset the real Little Mermaid story upsets them...
I can only imagine how upset the real Little Mermaid story upsets them...
August 18, 2023
Cute illustrations with some two page spreads. This gives some more descriptions and dialogue than a lot of fairy tales do, but it's still very true to the original.
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Check out my YouTube channel for bookish videos and monthly wrap ups!
July 30, 2015
Beautifully illustrated storybook. Great gift. Adaption is good apart from a few editing omissions. Hopefully picked up for reprint.
February 23, 2016
A very wordy re-telling of this fairy tale.
Illustrations were neat.
Illustrations were neat.
February 23, 2016
I enjoyed this version of Rapunzel. The illustrations are fun for the kids. My kids enjoyed this story.
January 23, 2018
Very nice illustrations but the text is very lengthy and overly wordy.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews