Rumpelstiltskin

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, and the author of Kurlek, Margaret Laurence: The
Long Journey Home, and As Though Life Mattered: Leo Kennedy’s Story.

A young girl is sold by her impoverished father to a greedy king who
believes the father’s claim that his daughter can spin straw into
gold. The king locks the girl in a room full of straw, and orders her to
make good this boast, on pain of death.

Three times she is helped by a strange little man, who raises his price
each time. His final demand is that she promise him her first-born son.
The straw becomes gold, the king marries the girl, and after a few years
the dwarf returns to collect on her promise, unless the young queen can
tell him his name.

Marie-Louise Gay is one of Canada’s best illustrators of children’s
books. Her bold and witty illustrations in Rumpelstiltskin, done in
graphite and colored pencils, are charged with pathos, fear, and humor.
Children will delight in the greedy king, smirking over a bobbin of
golden thread, or the furious little man exploding with rage as the
queen guesses his name. Highly recommended.