[GoodReads]
A strange little man helps the miller's daughter spin straw into gold for the king on the condition that she will give him her first-born child.

Rumplestiltskin is the story of a young girl, Gisela, who the king believes can weave straw into gold. Rumplestiltskin weaves straw into gold for Gisela, but she must give him something in return. Gisela promises Rumplestiltskin her future child. After Gisela marries the prince and their daughter is born, Rumplestiltskin returns, but Gisela will not give up her baby. Gisela keeps her baby because she guesses Rumplestiltskin’s name. The main message of this story is to tell the truth. I have mixed feelings about this story. Reading this brought back a lot of memories because my mom used to read this to my sister and I all the time when we were little, and we loved it. One thing that I really like about this story are the illustrations. They are vibrantly colored and they depict Rumplestiltskin in a very non-scary way. I have seen other film and book representations of this story and Rumplestiltskin is a lot more frightening. One thing that I have mixed emotions about is what happens to Rumplestiltskin. I know that Rumplestiltskin should not have asked for Gisela’s child, but I feel that Gisela lied, even if it was to save her family, and Rumplestiltskin helped her. In the end when Rumplestiltskin wants repayment and Gisela does not want to keep her promise, Gisela gets another chance to keep her child and because she hears Rumplestiltskin saying his name, and she guesses correctly. I feel that in this story Rumplestiltskin receives all of the negative consequences, such as not getting what he was promised and being forced to leave the kingdom even though he helped Gisela, while Gisela, who was lying and not keeping promises, gets all the positive receives, such as marrying the prince, having a palace, and keeping her baby. ( )