Module 10: Rapunzel's Revenge, by Shannon and Dean Hale

Summary: This graphic novel is a colorful reimagining of the Rapunzel fairy tale. In it, Rapunzel discovers that her mother is in fact her kidnapper, and that her real mother is a slave in the woman's mining camps. When she attempts escape, the woman who raised her imprisons her in a tower deep within an enchanted forest, where Rapunzel's hair magically grows. When Rapunzel's locks have grown long enough, she uses them to escape her prison, planning to rescue her real mother from enslavement. Beyond the forest is a Wild West-type obstacle course, where Rapunzel and her new friend Jack battle outlaws and save kidnapped young ladies, as they make their way back towards the villa where Rapunzel grew up. Rapunzel brandishes her long braid like a whip as she engages in skirmishes with bandits and gunslingers, and she and Jack eventually manage to infiltrate Mother Gothel's fortress and rescue Rapunzel's mother.

Reference: Hale, S., and Hale, D. (2008). Rapunzel's Revenge. New York, NY: Bloomsbury USA Children's Books.

Impressions: I like the spin this graphic novel puts on the familiar trope of the damsel in distress, making Rapunzel gutsy and witty as she takes her own destiny in hand. Even though she teams up with and falls in love with Jack, it's Rapunzel who saves them from the outlaws by slinging her whip-like braids, defeats Mother Gothel's henchmen, and whose help Jack needs with his giant problem back home. The dialogue is funny and irreverent, and Nathan Hale's illustrations are compliment the narrative.

Review: The popular author of Princess Academy teams with her husband and illustrator Hale (no relation) for a muscular retelling of the famously long-haired heroine's story, set in a fairy-tale version of the Wild West. The Hales' Rapunzel, the narrator, lives like royalty with witchy Mother Gothel, but defies orders, scaling villa walls to see what's outside--a shocking wasteland of earth-scarring mines and smoke-billowing towers. She recognizes a mine worker from a recurrent dream: it's her birth mother, from whom she was taken as punishment for her father's theft from Mother G.'s garden. Their brief reunion sets the plot in motion. Mother G. banishes Rapunzel to a forest treehouse, checking annually for repentance, which never comes. Rapunzel uses her brick-red braids first to escape, then like Indiana Jones with his whip, to knock out the villains whom she and her new sidekick, Jack (of Beanstalk fame), encounter as they navigate hostile territory to free Rapunzel's morn from peril. Illustrator Hale's detailed, candy-colored artwork demands close viewing, as it carries the action--Rapunzel's many scrapes are nearly wordless. With its can-do heroine, witty dialogue and romantic ending, this graphic novel has something for nearly everybody. 

Rapunzel's Revenge [review]. (2008). Publishers Weekly, 255(31), 63.

Suggested Use: I would present this book to middle school kids along with Paul O. Zelinsky's Rapunzel, a more traditional presentation of the fairy tale. I'd ask kids to talk about the different approaches each book takes to the fairy tale, including dialogue, narrative, and illustration style. I'd then ask the kids to consider their own favorite fairy tale, and reimagine the hero or heroine as the protagonist of a modern graphic novel. They could either write a brief story about the character, draw and illustration or two of the character's adventures, or both.