Rapunzel (1998 Caldecott Medal)

Author: Brothers Grimm Age Range: 5 - 8 yearsGrade Level: Kindergarten - 3Lexile Measure: AD700L Series: Caldecott Honor BookHardcover: 48 pagesPublisher: Dutton Books for Young Readers; 1 edition (October 1, 1997) ISBN: 9780525456070   Details: Surely among the most original and gifted of children's book illustrators, Paul O. Zelinsky has once again with unmatched emotional authority, control of space, and narrativecapability brought forth a unique vision for an age-old tale. Few artists at work today can touch the level at which his paintings tell a story and exert their hold. Zelinsky's retelling of Rapunzel reaches back beyond the Grimms to a late-seventeenth-century French tale by Mlle. la Force, who based hers on the Neapolitan tale Petrosinella in a collection popular at the time. The artist understands the story's fundamentals to be about possessiveness, confinement, and separation, rather than about punishment and deprivation. Thus the tower the sorceress gives Rapunzel here