Rumpelstiltskin

Following his reimagining of “The Three Billy Goats Gruff,” Barnett retells “Rumpelstiltskin,” his wisecracking lines (the miller is “a nice enough guy, but he had a big mouth”) joined by the medieval elegance of gouache spreads by Caldecott Honoree Ellis. After the miller jests to the visiting king about his own daughter’s ability to spin gold from straw, the daughter is shown hunched in despair within a royal room. The small, cunning man who appears out of nowhere will spin the king’s ever-larger piles of straw into gold, but he demands rewards in return—she offers first her jewelry, then her firstborn. After she weds the king and bears a child, the little man promises mercy if she can guess his name. A list is made and read aloud, and hilarity bubbles to the surface (“Jay? Shawn?” “No! No!” “Danladi? Octavius? Cuthbert?” “No! No! No!”) as the scroll of names is shown drifting and looping around the page. Short, punchy text juices the tale’s momentum (“Deal,” the girl replies to the wily man’s offers), while portraits trace the miller’s daughter’s journey from frog-catching child to regal royal and back again in this haunting tale about the power of knowing someone’s name. Most characters are portrayed with pale skin. Ages 4–8. (Feb.)