How the Library (Not the Prince) Saved Rapunzel

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

With the wind in his hair, and blowing his hooter,

Along came the prince on the back of a scooter.

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, please let down your hair!"

Called the prince from down on the bottom stair...

But Rapunzel just sat -

As still as a wall;

She didn't think much of the prince at all.



Rapunzel sits on the sixteenth floor of an inner city block, bored, dreaming and looking out at the rain. No one can rouse her from her apathy, not the milkman or the postman or the baker or her aunt - or even the prince. But when at last a letter is delivered, it contains news that has Rapunzel on her feet again. She has a new job at the library! And suddenly her life is busy, sparkling, exciting and stimulating. "For despite her long hair and her ravishing looks, she loved nothing better than reading good books!"

Reviews provided by Syndetics

School Library Journal Review

K-Gr 2-Rather than in a faraway kingdom, this Rapunzel lives in a modern English city on the 16th floor of an apartment building with a broken elevator. She sits day after day staring out the window with "nowhere to go" and "nothing to prove." Multiple people come to her "tower" and offer food, letters, and flowers and plead, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, please let down your hair," but she doesn't move. It finally takes the entire community climbing the stairs to bring her back to life. The letter that she wouldn't initially accept is a job offer at the library. She takes it and her life changes, allowing her to share the power of books with others. It may be hard for children to relate to Rapunzel, since she doesn't speak or react until well into the book. Her strength isn't shown until the end of the story and offers a positive message about the life-changing power of books, reading, and librarians. The rhyming text flows smoothly across the pages, but readers may stumble on some of the Briticisms, such as lift, hooter, and spanner. The colorful illustrations offer a diverse mix of characters, but the book misses the mark.-Andy Plemmons, David C. Barrow Elementary, Athens, GA (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

Take a popular fairy tale, modernize it and make the princess a sassy lass who refuses to let her hair down, and you have a nifty fairy-tale twist with a library message. "On the sixteenth floor of a tall tower block / sat Rapunzel, quite idle, whilst growing her locks." The milkman calls up, "The lift is not working, the stairs are too steep / my asthma is bad and my heart is too weak." But Rapunzel refuses to let down her hair for him or the postman, the baker, her aunt and even the prince! She just sits passively, so each visitor goes away. Worried that they are neglecting her due to their reluctance to climb 15 flights of stairs, the troupe gathers together and soldiers up to the 16th floor to cook Rapunzel supper and deliver a letter. "Rapunzel leapt up and shouted with glee: / I've got a new job at the library!' " So begins her love affair with library books and the discovery that "there's more to life than growing your hair!" (The question of how she gathered the wherewithal to apply for the job is not addressed.) The bouncy illustrations match the whimsy. Rapunzel's hair is wildly curly and red; the prince arrives on a scooter wearing a helmet, black goatee and shades; the cast is multiethnic. The rhymes give lilt to the tale. (Two British terms, "lift" and "spanner," are used for elevator and wrench, but this doesn't get in the way of the fun.)There's plenty of hair flair and fun, if not quite so much logic. (Picture book. 5-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.