The Girl Who Spun Gold

The Girl Who Spun Gold
by Virginia Hamilton

Synopsis:

The Girl Who Spun Gold tells the tale of a little man, Lit'mahn Bittyun, whose silly games and magical powers combine to save a queen and destroy himself. The story opens as a field worker and her mother are approach by the local king. To cover up for making so much noise, the field worker's mother tells the king that she is rejoicing because her daughter can turn plain thread into gold! This comes as news to the daughter who does not actually have the power.

The king, out of admiration of the girl's gift, marries her, crowning her Queen Quashiba. But as a stipulation, Quashiba must spin for him three full rooms of golden thread. She is saddened by the impossible task and the greed of her new husband. But as she weeps out of fear, a little man appears in the room and agrees to spin the thread on one condition. If after three days of spinning and guessing, him spinning, her guessing, she cannot figure out his name, he will turn her into a creature even smaller and nastier than he, and he was small and nasty!

Out of options, the girl agrees, and spends two days guessing incorrectly. But during dinner of the third night, her husband tells her a story from his hunting trip. Him and his men stumbled upon a little man singing a song about himself and his name... Could this be the same man that spins the thread? Or will Quashiba be turned into a nasty little creature for the rest of eternity? For the queen's sake she must hope her husband stumbled across the right, little man!

Response:

The Girl Who Spun Gold by Virginia Hamilton, is an adaptation of Tom Tit Tot, the English version of the original German story, Rumpelstiltskin. As that, it was a logical link to Tom Tit Tot. The two books tell the same basic story with different cultural influences that are made obvious from the start and draw a nice contrast between two similar stories.

One thing I liked about this story was the opportunity to see Leo & Diane Dillon doing more illustrations. I came across their work while reading Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears and comparing the illustrations of the two books was quite interesting. In The Girl Who Spun Gold the Dillons use metallic paint over painted with gold to emphasize the color. The effect is vivid images that pop off the page!

Book Activity:

The two books, The Girl Who Spun Gold by Virginia Hamilton and Tom Tit Tot by Evaline Ness, are both adaptations of the original Rumpelstiltskin. I would have students compare and contrast the different versions as an extension activity after reading the books. Students would chart the differences in characters, setting, the event time lines, and endings of the books. A point would be made to cue students into the common elements of the stories as well as the unique perspectives that the authors and illustrators brought to each rendition. Questions to guide the activity would be:

• What events in the story are common to all three versions? What differences?
• How did the change in events/characters work to make the story different?
• In the end did you think the three stories were the same? Why/Why Not?