Super Short Summary

Published in 2013, Liesl Shurtliff’s Rump: The (Fairly) True Tale of Rumpelstiltskin is a middle-grade fantasy novel that reinterprets the classic fairy tale. Twelve-year-old Rump lives in a magical kingdom where people’s names determine their destinies, and his name does not seem auspicious. His luck seems to change when he discovers that he can spin straw into gold, but Rump soon realizes that he is spinning himself deeper into a curse. To break the curse, he must embark on a dangerous quest to find his true name. The novel won the IRA Children’s Book Award (2014), the Judy Lopez Memorial Award Honor (2014), and the Arizona Grand Canyon Reader Award (2017) and explores themes of fate, friendship, and courage. Citations in this study guide refer to the eBook edition released by Random House Children’s Books in 2018.