“Gary D. Schmidt and his wife, the author Elizabeth Stickney, live on a 150-year-old farm in Alt, Michigan, where after their six children are safe abed, they sit together by the wood stove and wonder about things…. One night, they wondered why the loathed Rumpelstiltskin wanted the boy prince. What was so significant about the child? And why was Rumpelstiltskin so insistent?”
I have to say, this is part of why I love Gary D. Schmidt. Because never have I wondered why Rumpelstiltskin wanted the boy prince. Never have I wondered why he was so insistent. Those questions simply would not occur to me. But I sure am glad they worked their way into Schmidt’s imagination, because this is a fairytale re-imagining that I found to be exciting, unpredictable, elegant, and thoughtful. Leave it to Schmidt to turn a fairy tale into 172 pages of a princeling’s coming-of-age story. And to do it in a way that was devoid of tired tropes and modern prejudices. This felt like a fairy tale unto itself, and I delighted in it.
In a perfect mix of fairy tale and Gary D. Schmidt’s signature style of boy coming-of-age story, Tousel has been raised by a magical man and has never left the safety of his farm. On this special day, however, everyone is headed to town to celebrate Lord Beryn’s victory over the rebel uprising in another part of the kingdom. When Tousel and his Da arrive in town, they see a long line of rebels being paraded to the castle. The prisoners are poor men, women, and children. Lord Beryn is presenting them to the King and demanding their execution. Tousel is appalled by this and speaks out his indignation. All eyes are on Tousel, and a quest is set before him. If he can find the answer to the King’s riddle, he will be spared. If he cannot, then he will be hanged with the prisoners. Tousel is assigned the “help” of a boy his own age who is poor and blind. Together, the boys set off on a dangerous adventure to find the answer to the riddle.
Because we are so familiar with fairy tales, and this one is really very well told, we think we know how this story will go. We think we know who is who, what is what, and how it will all work out. Readers of Schmidt will know that nothing is ever exactly as it seems, and it never goes the way you think that it will. But, instead, what does happen is so much better than what you expect. Even if it isn’t as tidy or as happy.
I thoroughly enjoyed this tale and am glad to recommend it as a family read-aloud or to middle-grade readers. It is not as intense as most of his other books of this length, but it is as well written. I would especially recommend this book to those who are teaching writing or to aspiring young authors. This story is a brilliant example of how to take a known story, look at it from a different perspective, follow it down an unknown road, and come out with something new and compelling out of the deal.