That the title looks familiar--albeit with a letter missing plus a few additional words--is certainly intentional in Ra Pu Zel and the Stinky Tofu, Ying Chang Compestine's enchanting reinvention of the tressed, trapped heroine. Charming, animated art by debut illustrator Crystal Kung promises a delicious adventure.
Compestine confronts "the old fairy tale about Rapunzel," offering "the real story." Princess Ra Pu Zel indeed had legendary hair: "to keep [it] out of her food, she wore it in a braid" because, more than anything, she loved to cook... and eat. The queen insisted "the kitchen is no place for a princess," and the governess would "grump" over her voracious appetite. Ra Pu Zel, refusing to be everyone else's "perfect princess," escapes to her tower to finally create and savor in peace; her clever mother figures out the "let down your hair" to deliver provisions. Princes vie for her attention, but only her own olfactive curiosity triggered by "slimy, stinky pieces of tofu" lures her down those stairs.
Compestine (Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party) tells readers in an author's note that "Ra Pu Zel is strictly from my own imagination." Kung's digital art is a delectable enhancement, which opens with emulating traditional Chinese brush paintings, nodding to the story's "long ago" provenance. While Kung keeps her impressive backgrounds filled with culturally historical details (architecture, palatial home goods, royal wardrobes), she enlivens Compestine's hero as a whirling, rule-breaking iconoclast whose independence defies subjugation. Together, author and artist ensure Ra Pu Zel her own happily ever after. --Terry Hong