Falling for Rapunzel

This version of Rapunzel is told in rhyming couplets, but set in the modern day with modern technologies. Rapunzel has a computer, cellphone and hairdryers in her apartment/tower looking over the city landscape, with a park and skyscrapers. This anachronism makes the tale comical. The rhythm of the couplets and the play on words will be fun for children even if they don’t know the original tale. The illustration is done in cheerful, bright colours with collages of trees and shrubs. Leah Wilcox skips the first part of the original story where the enchantress takes Rapunzel away from the lonely couple. In Falling for Rapunzel, the “damsel in distress” mishears the prince’s call to let down her hair, and instead tosses down items such as underwear, pigs, socks, a cantaloupe and eventually her maid. In the end, we learn that Wilcox’ Rapunzel is a free woman who comes and goes as she pleases and has bad hair days. Wilcox subtly deconstructs the notion that women need to be rescued in a manner that can be appreciated by all ages.