Rapunzel by: Rachel Isadora (Multicultural and International Literature)

 

A husband and wife had a child on its way when the wife became very ill due to her strong desire for rapunzel.  The man climbed into the garden to get it for his wife because he wanted her to get better.  The wife wanted more and the husband returned to the garden.  He was caught by the sorceress who was very angry.  She made the man promise to give her his child when it was born in exchange for the rapunzel he had taken.  The sorceress named the girl Rapunzel and locked her into a tower that could only be reached by Rapunzel dropping down her long hair for the sorceress to climb up.  The prince heard her singing and promised to come back every night to visit her.  The sorceress realized Rapunzel was pregnant and cut off her hair before leaving her alone in the woods.  The prince came back that night and was blinded by falling onto thorns.  He wandered around until he heard Rapunzel's voice and found his family.  When Rapunzel cried, her tears healed the prince's blindness and the family returned to the kingdom.

I would use this book in the classroom to show a diverse side of fairytale genre books.  Most of the fairy tales have Caucasian families and a beautiful skinny main character for the princess.  This book would be good to use in the classroom because it does not fit into the stereotypical idea of a prince and princess that is instilled in the children by Disney movies and most fairy tale illustrations.  I would ask the students if they have seen the movie Tangled and ask them to compare and contrast the two versions.  I would ask the students to search in the library for other multicultural or international literature that could be compared to the standard fairy tales that they are already familiar with.  If they find any books that are diverse versions of popular fairy tales I would read them aloud to the class.  I would ask the students to pay special attention to the details in the illustrations and to think about how they are different from the illustrations they are used to seeing in most fairy tales.  

AR Book Finder Book Level 4.2