Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin

Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstiltskin

• Genre: Fiction; middle-grade fantasy
• Originally Published: 2013
• Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 660L; grades 3-7
• Structure/Length: 32 chapters, epilogue; approx. 264 pages; approx. 7 hours, 52 minutes on audio
• Protagonist and Central Conflict: Twelve-year-old Rump lives in a magic kingdom where your name is your destiny, and his name makes him the butt of everyone’s jokes. His luck seems to change when he discovers that he can spin straw into gold, but Rump soon finds out that magic is dangerous as he spins himself deeper into a curse. To break the curse, he must go on a dangerous quest where the odds are against him.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Bullying; death of a grandparent; occasional mild violence

Liesl Shurtliff, Author

• Bio: Grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah; fifth of eight children; loved dancing, singing, playing the piano, and reading books as a child; studied Music Dance Theatre at Brigham Young University; began writing after her first child was born; lives with husband and four children in Chicago
• Other Works: Jack: The (Fairly) True Story of Jack and the Beanstalk (2015); Red: The (Fairly) True Story of Red Riding Hood (2016); Grump: The (Fairly) True Story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (2018); The Mona Lisa Key (2018); The Obsidian Compass (2019); The Forbidden Lock (2020)
• Awards: IRA Children’s Book Award Winner (2014); Judy Lopez Memorial Award Honor Book (2014); Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List (2014); Kentucky Bluegrass Award Master List (2014); Arizona Grand Canyon Reader Award Winner (2017)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Guide:

• Fighting Fate
• The Value of Friendship
• The Importance of Courage

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Guide, students will:

• Develop an understanding of the literary context regarding the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale that impacts Rump’s characters and plot.
• Study paired texts and other brief resources to make connections via the text’s themes of Fighting Fate, The Value of Friendship, and The Importance of Courage.
• Plan, design, and create an illustration that conveys conflict and character development based on novel details.
• Analyze and evaluate theme, motif, and other literary devices to draw conclusions in structured essay responses regarding Rump’s friendships, the significance of spinning wheels, and other topics.