Have you ever wondered just what was going on when that odd little man with the long name stepped up and volunteered to spin straw into gold for the miller's daughter? If you stop and think about it, there are some very peculiar components to the story.

Vivian Vande Velde has wondered too, and she's come up with these six alternative versions of the old legend. A bevy of miller's daughters confront their perilous situation in very different ways--sometimes comic, sometimes scary, always unexpected.