Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin

First and foremost, I have to give a shout out to one of the biggest supporters of my reading habits. That’s you, Mom. She is the sweetest, and she sent me Rump on my kindle just for the heck of it, because she thought I would like it! What made that so fateful was the fact that someone had told me about this book months ago, and I had added it to my “To Read” shelf on Good Reads which my Mom knew nothing about. Thanks to my mom, I had the opportunity to read a truly wonderful story. Thanks, Mom. You always have supported my love of reading!

Now let’s talk about Rumpelstiltskin!

Title: Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin

Rating: 5/5

Author: LieslShurtliff

Pages: 274

Genre: Children’s fiction/Fantasy/Fairy Tale

 Synopsis:

Most of us are familiar with the story of Rumpelstiltskin—little guy, spins straw into gold, likes babies—but we only ever hear about the story from the miller’s daughter’s perspective. Have any of you stopped to wonder just where Rumpelstiltskin came from, why he wanted to help the miller’s daughter, or why he wanted her unborn child in the first place?

Well, look no further! All of the answers to those questions and more are contained in Liesl Shurtliff’s book. It turns out that Rump (as most people know him) is just an average guy. Almost…

All he wants is to have enough food for him and his gran and for those pesky bullies at the mine to give him a break. But more than all of that, he longs to discover the secret of his name and fulfill his destiny, whatever that is. Names have power, so why would his mother have given him one like Rump?

The answer to all his problems comes one night as he discovers his magical ability to spin straw into gold! But as we know from another version of Rumpelstiltskin (Once Upon a Time), all magic comes with a price. Instead of solving all of his problems, the number of problems increases until he’s buried so deep that no amount of gold will ever fix it.

My Reaction:

May I point out that another book has earned a 5/5 in my eyes? It’s not an easy thing to do, and I always hesitate a little because I don’t want to be throwing out 5’s willy nilly, but this was a truly great story that I’ll definitely read again at some future point.

One of the things that made me want to read this book is the pure fact that it’s a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin. I’ve never heard of someone doing a retelling of that story, and I was intrigued. What could Liesl Shurtliff have come up with?

It started out good and only got better from there. The story has characters or references to other stories we may know, but it is so completely its own thing. I am amazed that Shurtliff was able to take a short, to the point fairy tale and fill it out to create a whole book from Rump’s perspective. It was quite clever, and had some powerful messages at the end (not just the message to not be a dummy and promise your unborn child…)

This book has heart, humor, and adventure. As mentioned above, it has good lessons about overcoming trials, that being mean is a choice that we don’t have to choose, and what it really means to find your destiny. This is one of those books that is great for both young and old, especially lovers of fairy tales. If you’re one of those parents that likes to read books with your kids, this one is a sure bet!

Reader Guidance:

I’d say this book is safe for all audiences. It does have some bullying—they call Rump “Butt” or once threw poop in his face, etc. It also deals briefly with the death of loved ones. Food is hard to come by in Rump’s village, so there is also talk of being extremely hungry. Overall, the way it’s presented is suitable for readers of all ages.

Similar Books:

Liesl Shurtliff has two other books that seem to be similar in nature:

Red: The True Story of Red Riding Hood

Jack: The True Story of Jack and the Beanstalk

Next Book:

Being December and getting very close to Christmas, I thought the next book should be something Christmas themed. You may have never heard of my next choice, but here’s what gave me the idea.

Probably sparked by our watching of Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, my husband asked me about the company that made all those well known, stop motion Christmas specials, and then proceeded to look up youtube videos on Rankin/Bass. One video that came up was someone’s list of what they considered to be some of the weirdest or worst Rankin/Bass Christmas specials. (I don’t know how Cricket on the Hearth wasn’t on his list except for maybe the fact that it’s traditional animation and not stop motion. Just saying.) One of the ones he mentioned was a story based off of an L. Frank Baum book (for those of you who don’t know, that is the author of The Wonderful Wizard of O). The book is called The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, and you better believe I’m going to read it! According to the cover, it's a Christmas classic! We'll shall see!

I actually have seen the stop motion version of this story, and I’m curious to see how it compares to the book. My favorite part of it is the scene a song the children sing after Santa has made his first toy. I’m sure my mom didn’t love it quite so much because for days after watching the show I inevitably go around singing, “I want to wake up to a big surprise! A wooden cat with yellow-green eyes!” Now that I’ve just watched this video, it’s my poor husband who gets to suffer with my random singing this year! Ha ha!

Check out the scene below! And get your own copy of the book to read along with me!