Booktalking Colorado - Full Booktalk Record

Booktalking Colorado Full Record:

	Title:	The Rumpelstiltskin Problem
	Author:	Vande Velde, Vivian
	Date Published:	2002
	Genre:	Retold Fairy Tales
	Grade Level:	6 - 12
	Booktalker:	Sam Marsh

Booktalk:
Remember the game you call "Telephone," where you whisper something in the ear of the person next to you, that person whispers it to the next and so on until you reach the end of the line? The final version bears little or no resemblance to what you first whispered, Right?! Fairy Tales are like that. They were not written down as they were developed. They were told and repeated and changed. Something was forgotten and subtracted with something else replacing it. Or, the storyteller simply found a more effective way of getting the point across. Thus, we end with a plethora (I love that word...its so plethoreous)...a plethora of versions of the same story. Sometimes, the story has lost so many details, or had so many changed, that the resulting Fairy tale just seems to make no sense. Such a story is Rumpelstiltskin. A poor miller tells the king that "My daughter can spin straw into gold." Why!!!??? Why is the miller even talking to the king in the first place? Why doesn't the miller simply take the gold and sell it and become rich? Why does he tell a king, when everyone knows kings in such a Fairy Tale are notoriously greedy and evil, of his daughter's ability? Why doesn't the king question the fact that the miller is poor if his daughter can spin straw into gold? Shouldn't the king be a bit suspicious? No, the king simply says that the daughter shall come to his castle, spin gold for him, and become his queen if she succeeds. Why doesn't the miller even say that his daughter can spin straw into gold when he MUST know that she cannot? Did she lie to him? If so, did he take her word at face value without verifying for himself that such was the case? What kind of a parent is he to take her to the castle to show off a talent that she doesn't have? (Sort of like our parents bragging about how good we are at ____ fill in the blank)? Then, why does the king tell the daughter that she must spin the straw into gold or be put to death? Does he really think that she will learn to love him if indeed she does have the ability? Now, the daughter may seem to be smarter than her father, as she knows that she cannot make gold from straw. But, does she have a plan. No, she simply sits down and starts crying until a man (Rumplestiltskin by name) shows up in the castle who can rescue her. Is that logical? Of course, you're all used to 007, so... When he asks what she'll give him if he helps her, she offers him her gold ring!? What in tarnation does he need a gold ring for?! If he can turn straw into gold, he can have as many gold rings as he wants!! But, that's what it says...its in the book. Not exactly a good bargain, but... But, the king is a skeptic...or greedy, and demands even more gold the next night or... This time, the girl gives her helper a necklace. They're a poor family, where'd she get all this jewelry?? And, once again, why does he agree? Third night, same story, more gold or die, girl out of jewelry, little man wants firstborn child. Sounds like its Merlin now... Girl agrees, King is satisfied, and the daughter marries the creep! Why?! Certainly not his bedside manner! Marriage, happy, firstborn child...girl cries...little man offers her a way out if she guesses his name. Why? He had an iron-clad contract. If she doesn't guess his name...he get nothing. Boy, why aren't used car salemen like him?! The girl, I mean queen, isn't very good at name guessing. Even though the name of the story is his name, and no one else in the story seems to have a name. But, at the last minute, a servant sees the little man sing a bad poem and mentioning his name "Rumplestiltskin is my name." Why?! Like you always ask in a bad mystery...because without the inane the story would drag out even longer. The servant reports that he couldn't find any names but only saw a little man dancing and singing "..." He must be a _______FITB. The princess then asks the little man if his name is "???" or "???" and finally "is it Rumpelstiltskin?" The little man stamps his foot in anger, cracks the floor of the castle, and tears himself in two. Who is more mentally challenged here, the girl/queen or Rumple?