Teaming up with her husband, children’s author Shannon Hale brings her young readers something new: a graphic novel retelling of the classic fairy tale of Rapunzel.

Rapunzel follows in the tradition of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, reworking and re-setting the classic fairy tale into a post-modern story of friendship and revenge. After discovering that her mother Gothel has been lying to her about the world outside their castle, Rapunzel stumbles upon her true mother, from whom she was kidnapped as a toddler. Deaf to her cries for justice, Gothel imprisons Rapunzel in a magic tree which, because of Gothel’s plant-magic, feeds Rapunzel for several years. The plant-magic also affects Rapunzel, resulting in her extraordinarily long hair.

Rather than the dashing prince, however, it is Rapunzel who rescues herself, proving resourceful with her hair. On her way out she encounters the prince, who really is not gallant and self-less at all, but merely looking for glory and conquest.

At this point the story switches settings from fairy tale forest to an American West scene: Gothel’s kingdom holds ghost towns, deserts and mountain refuges. In her quest to rescue her mother and seek her revenge on Gothel, Rapunzel teams up with Jack, a cheerful outlaw who is oddly attached to his pet goose.

True to the fairy-tale genre, the wicked Gothel is destroyed, her kingdom is rescued from the drought that she had imposed upon it, and Rapunzel and Jack live happily ever after.

In an age where women protest that they can do everything that men can, Rapunzel is an apt heroine. She is resourceful and independent, often outdoing Jack in their attempts to get out of sticky situations. Fortunately, the authors do not create her at the expense of their hero; Jack, although nothing like the typical knight in shining armor, nevertheless holds his own, showing loyalty to Rapunzel and bravery in the face of danger. Can we have our cake and eat it too? Perhaps.