Rumplestiltskin's Daughter

This is hands down the best fractured fairy tale picture book I've ever read. It also unquestionably has the best representation of a fairy tale female that I've ever seen. After randomly picking it up in the library, I wanted to write the author a fan letter based entirely on this book alone.

In this version of Rumplestilskin the miller's daughter falls in love with Rumplestiltskin and they both escape the greedy king together. But, years later, their daughter is kidnapped by the same miserly king. Instead of calling her father for help, Rumplestiltskin's clever daughter hatches a plan to save, not only herself, but the whole kingdom's economy.

I was delighted to see they actually made a play out of this book. Here's a link to the website for that. Unfortunately it's only in Richmond Virginia, so I can't see it. I also think it might already be over. But it's cool just to know they did one. This book certainly deserves it. Heck, I'd love to see a movie based on this book if they did it right.

Book Club

This is the spoilers section.

What, you say? A spoilers section for a picture book? That's right. This one was so cleverly written I'd rather you read it before you read this part.

Okay, are you done? C'mon, it's a picture book, it doesn't take that long. Go to the kids section of your library (only cowards feel embarrassed there) and pick it up. If they don't have it, demand that they get it!

Okay, done with that? Here it is.

I LOVE that Rumplestiltskin's Daughter got to be prime minister. I was inwardly cringing the whole time, worried she would marry that icky king. Because, no matter how reformed he is, it's still creepy. Plus it would have only reinforced the message that women have to get married to live fulfilled lives. Now, I do admittedly like romance. But this story had that with the miller's daughter and Rumplestiltskin. That was so cute, and Rumplestilskin was a cutie. So it this story has it all!

Pretties: Audiobook Review

In this second book in Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series, Tally is finally one of the Pretties. She becomes a member of a popular clique called the crims and falls for the leader, Zane. But she's plagued by half-remembered memories and soon the people from her ugly days do more than haunt her: they come back in the flesh.

No offense to the models on the cover, but they're not how I imagine Pretties. The guy has a caveman brow, and his eyes aren't as wide as they're described as being. The girl's okay but not breathtaking. I suppose it's ironic that I'm critisizing their appearance, considering the whole series is about the nature of beauty. But I actually think the girl on Uglies is stunningly beautiful and these two cannot compare. Perhaps that was the intention.

Anyway, I thought that this story was a great follow-up to the previous book. Even after being made a pretty it's clear that an important part of Tally's previous personality still remains. I read in another review the the pretty talk was annoying, which it was, but I got used to it.

I don't have enough comments on the audio part this time to give it a seperate section. I used a playaway format again but was frustrated by the buttons being changed. Still,to be fair, most the stuff I complained about was fixed in this different playaway. It was just annoying to have finally adjusted to the old one just to have to adjust to a new one.

Book Club

Warning, I'm about to reveal the ending of the book.

But first I'd like to say that I initially thought Zane was somehow David. Clearly wrong on that.

I didn't really want Tally to be turned into a Special at the end. Something about the predictability of it bothered me. When I first discovered Shay had become a Special, it was my hope that would be the conflict in the next book and Tally would be left a pretty. But I can't say I didn't see it coming, and I didn't guess that it would be Shay that would change Tally.

Plus I think I can see where Scott Westerfeld is working all this into a theme of evolution and the good and bad of changing as you mature. On one hand Tally is gradually inheriting more power, which is like a metaphor for adulthood. On the other hand, the ability to abuse that power, becomes more and more apparent, like when she encounters the tribe that worships Pretties because they're some anthropologist's experiment. I can see this power and abuse being stepped up when she becomes a Special.