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Title: Zel
ISBN: 0141301163
Author:
Donna Jo Napoli
Publicate Date: 1998-11-01
Publish: 1998-11-01
List Price: $6.99
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $2.75
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.01
Amazon Merchant Price: $6.99
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1: nice
zel is my favorite napoli book. i enjoyed the alternate perspective and thought that she expressed herself in a very effective and enthralling way. i thought that her characterization was good. i was really drawn into the story
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2: Expanded Fairy Tale
This is the fairy-tale story of Rapunzel, told in an updated and more complete way. Rather than being told in just a few pages and leaving out much of the character development as many fairy tales do, this story takes the basic plot and expands it into a real story about real people. Rapunzel is still a beautiful girl living with her mother, who is actually a witch and not her real mother at all. When Rapunzel meets a handsome prince and falls in love with him, her mother locks her in a tall tower with no doors. Once a day her mother climbs up Rapunzel's hair to see her and to bring her food.
The difference between this story and the original is that the relationship between Rapunzel and her mother is much clearer. Rather than portraying her mother as an awful monster who locked her daughter in a tower, this story shows Rapunzel's mother as a loving parent who wants her daughter to be safe. She locks Rapunzel up because she wants her daughter to make the decision to stay with her forever.
This is a happy and sad story, interesting to anyone who has enjoyed the Rapunzel fairy tale. I liked that the author was able to form a new story around the pretty strict boundaries of a story that already existed. She did a good job of not contradicting anything from the original fairy tale, while making it into much more.
It was tragic, though, that Rapunzel never tries to understand her mother, with is the fault of both of them. So many of their problems are caused by misunderstanding that might have been cleared up with better communication.
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3: Disapionting
After reading so many takes on different fairy tales, this one was disapionting. This book is probably ment for early teens and I do not believe anyone older than 14 would enjoy it. I found that this book did not go into much depth and since this is my favorite story I guess I could be slightly prejudice. Even though very well written, there was not enough creativity and I was looking for more.
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4: Very well written.
As a little girl I loved the story of Rapunzel. I read it every chance I got. When I was 13 I found Zel. Which is the real story of Rapunzel. What a well written and amazing book!! The way the charecters are described makes you want to keep reading until the very end. If you enjoyed the simple fairy tale as a child. Then you will love the more grown up version just as much!
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5: Zel
Zel
Donna Jo Napoli
Tay Corti
Book Review
English 10
July 27, 2006
Zel is a wonder filled book by Donna Jo Napoli, the author of The Magic Circle, and The Prince of the Pond: Otherwise known as De Fawg Pin, and other great children's books. Zel is the remake of the ever-popular fairy tale, Rapunzel, set in the 1500's. But this version is for all ages. It is a story of love and lust between mother and daughter, and girl and man. Poor 15-year-old Zel addresses the feeling of being lost, and losing something dear, including one's sanity. Being betrayed and being able to persevere through it all, pain and hurt, love and happiness is a major key in this story. The book takes its readers through all the suffering in which Zel has to endure.
Zel is at first a young, thirteen year old little girl, so innocent, with love for everyone in the world. Zel has a natural gift though; animals trust her and listen to her, and she seems to understand their feelings. Her mother also has a gift, an unholy gift. Mother controls plants with a power that demons gave her. When mother asks Zel if she would like to talk with these animals Zel wishes to so badly, but she in the end realizes that she already has the gift of understanding animals, so why control them? There is something very special about Zel, her golden braids, dark eyes, laughter, voice, her boldness, her beauty, and her spirit; these are the things with which Konrad falls in love.
Konrad is a count who has a beautiful mare named Meta, whom Zel falls in love with. He has hair that falls over his eyes, tall, manly, and with a heart of gold. He falls in love with Zel the first time he meets her in the smithy, as she calms his horse, tames his beast. After he fetches her a goose egg he starts a two-year search for her. Konrad is in love.
Mother is the narrator of the story; she is a witch with the power to control plants. Somehow this power she received is related to how she gets Zel. The demons want her to take the power, for then she may have a child. Mother grows beautiful plants and much rapunzel in her back yard, and when her neighbor steals the lettuce for his pregnant wife she catches him, and forces him to give her the child when it is born, and in return, he may take the lettuce. Zel is the child whom Mother gets. She loves her and raises her, but she must convince Zel to choose her over ever one else. Mother loses her sanity in this plight, locking her daughter up, and lying to her.
The things that work for this story are the language and the detail of the characters. The details are beautiful and the language is poetic. The lines flow, such as in the line, "Dear Mother, I've known passion. And I will never give it up (Zel, Page 197)" or the ever romantic line, " I touch the world. I have no powers anymore. I feel as though with a lover's heart (Page 227)." The things that did not work for the story were all of the sub plots. Many things were happening and after a wile it was a bit of a challenge to remember all that was said, or other wise the plot was completely lost.
I would have to rate this book a four out of five, it was a great book, and beautifully written. I would recommend this book to children from ages nine to age forty-five.
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