Petrosinella

When a pregnant woman is caught stealing parsley from her ogress-neighbor's garden in this classic fairy-tale from Naples, the unfortunate lady is forced to promise her unborn child as payment, in order to avoid death. Taking the child into the forest, the ogress imprisons her in a tall tower, where she grows to womanhood. When a handsome prince (naturally) happens by and discovers Petrosinella, the two fall in love, eventually escaping. But can they outrun the ogress...?

Recorded some two hundred years before the more famous Rapunzel, from the Brothers Grimm - it was contained in Giambattista Basile's 1637 Pentamerone, often considered the first collection of European fairy-tales - this Neapolitan variant of the classic tale has always show more been a favorite of mine. I owned this edition as a girl, and must have read it a hundred times! The story here is engaging, exciting, and ultimately heart-satisfying. Rereading as an adult, I particularly liked the inclusion of the three magic acorns, which give Petrosinella more agency than her fairy-tale "sister" Rapunzel. The artwork from Diane Stanley is simply gorgeous - like Evelyn Andreas' Cinderella, I pored over this book as a child - perfectly capturing Petrosinella's beauty and the ogress' malice. Highly recommended to all fairy-tale lovers, and to anyone who appreciate lovely picture-book art. show less

Diane Stanley's author's note is interesting, as is the story. The whole bit about the blind prince, the desert, the twins, is missing, as is the girl's father. I loved the pictures, though some might find them just a bit too pretty. Highly recommended to anyone who explores older folklore and fairy tales. But I wonder if children like it? Sentimental girls, but anyone else?

I will look for more by Stanley, for both her art and her voice in this adaptation.

I liked the art work in this book more than the story itself. The artist did a great job fitting the characters to the time period they were from and the illustrations are beautiful and captivating

I find if fascinating how folk tales from all over the world have the same themes over and over again. I ended up reading a lot of folk tales for this class, and the same repetition of three, the trickster, the happily ever after, all of those things that we connect to folk stories exist in most of what I have read, regardless of where it came from.

It is always interesting to compare and contrast the "traditional" with the same stories from another culture. Petrosinella and Rapunzel differ in quite a few minor ways, but there were a couple bigger points that I think deserve mention: first, Petrosinella involved a lot more magic, and she also did not get pregnant. It's a little milder of a story than the Rapunzel I am used to.
Medium: doesn't say, but it looks like colored pencil or maybe watercolor?

Petrosinella is a spin off the fairytale of Rapunzel. In this story a women sneaks into an ogress' garden to steal parsley. When the ogress catches her the woman is forced to promise her child to the ogress. When the woman's daughter turns seven the ogress takes the daughter and locks her up in a tower. There she stays until one day her prince comes to save her. However, Rapunzel can not escape until she over hears the ogress saying that she needs the three magic acorns in order to escape. Quickly rapunzel takes the three magic acorns and uses them to escape through the woods. Upon her return she finds her mother and is quickly married to the prince.

LOC Summary: In this version of Rapunzel, the heroine breaks the enchantment put on her by the ogress who keeps her prisoner with the aid of three acorns.

Age: Upper primary
Genre: Fairy Tale
Critique: This is a fairy tale because it is a traditional, often-told tale. It also contains elements of music. The ogress is a static character because throughout the whole tale she is evil and mean, and ever changes.