Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon and Dean Hale

Rapunzel's Revenge is a graphic novel by Newberry Honor winner Shannon Dale. The story is a retelling of Rapunzel set in the Wild West.  ng In this version of the fairy tale, the story begins where we find Rapunzel living the life like royalty with her unpleasant and witchy Mother Gothel.  But Rapunzel is not happy with her living situations and disobeys Mother's order and scales the walls of the villa to find out what is outside her world.  She shocked to an unpleasant sight of mines and smoke-billowing towers.  While surveying the land, Rapunzel recognizes one of the mine workers as her birth mother.  It turns out Rapunzel was taken from her family as punishment because her father was caught stealing from Mother Gothel’s garden.  Their reunion sets all wheels a blazing.  Mother Gothel banishes Rapunzel to a treehouse deep in the forest, where she checks every year for regret of what she had done; which Mother Gothel never gets.  As time goes by and her hair grows longer and longer; Rapunzel uses it to escape her dwellings, and then uses it as a weapon to knock out the villains that she encounters as they head out to free Rapunzel’s birth mother from danger.  Along the way she meets and teams up with Jack, from the Beanstalk fame.  The artwork in this graphic retelling is done with great detail that you must look closely to see what the illustrator has created.  There is something for everyone and it is not a book just for young girls.

A book trailer can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4_Slu5J67M

Teachers can get ideas to incorporate this book into their lessons at  http://www.squeetus.com/stage/rap_classroom.html

Readers also enjoyed The Storm in the Barn by Matt Phelan and The Courageous Princess by Rod Espinosa

Additional books written by the same authors include The Goose Girl and Princess Academy

Hale, S., Hale, D., & Hale, N. (2008). Rapunzel's revenge. New York, NY: Bloomsbury.