Lauren Wilkerson

The first book I ever read by Napoli was Bound. It was a quick read, but I really enjoyed it. So I looked around on Goodreads and found out that Napoli has written quite a few books that are twists on the fairy tales we all know and love. So the first one I picked up was Zel.

Zel, which is short for Rapunzel, is a teenager just coming of age to marry. She meets a young nobleman at the market and they kind of click. Zel's mother gets wind of the situation and locks Zel into a tower so she can have her daughter all to herself. This book was so short that I'm afraid saying much more will spoil it. I will say that the ending definitely surprised me, but in a good way. After finishing the book, I felt content and happy... just like fairy tales are supposed to make you feel!

An afterthought... I was wondering why the girl on the cover was holding a head of lettuce. Weird, huh? If anything, shouldn't she be holding a flower or an animal? I found out that Rapunzel is a kind of lettuce and that lettuce is what she was named after!