Will Moses, one of America’s most beloved folk artists, brings us his charming interpretation of the most enduring of all Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales, Hansel & Gretel. Moses’ playful double-spread paintings, full of exquisite color and details, and his authentic retelling of this classic story will captivate young readers and take them back to a dark, mysterious forest, an enticing gingerbread house, and a terrifying witch.

This is one of my favorite fairy tales from when I was a little one. What makes this one stand out from others is the beautiful illustrations. Super colorful and a keeper.

4**** ( )

For this book, I would use it as a partner book for a third grade class along with the other folk literature books to show the differences and similarities between folk literature. The importance storytellers held and how translations of the stories changed the events and little descriptions in the stories. I would have the children do a graphic organizer of the story and the events that happen throughout the story.

I thought the pictures would be better if more of the pictures were full pages. Some of the paintings were wonderful, but they were so small that you couldn't see all the details.

Perhaps one of the more serious of Grimm's fairytales, this time rendered with lovely folk art type images, the age old story continues to have the possibility of instilling nightmares into children.

The five major characters are a weak, easily led father, a dominant and abusive step mother, a wicked witch with an appetite for cannibalism, and two children who refuse to stay victimized.

When the last crumb of bread is nearing, the wicked step mother convinces the father to abandon his children in the woods. Hansel finds a way to get he and his sister back home. Once again, they are taken to the woods and left there, perhaps to die.

Finding a gingerbread abode decorated with plentiful candies, the hungry children eat away to their heart's content. When the witch discovers them, she takes them inside. Imprisoning Hansel in a cage, she tries to feed him so he can be plump enough to eat. Gretel continually gives the near blind witch a bone to fool her into believing Hansel is not ready to be devoured.

Pushing the witch into the fire enables the children to be free, and once again to find their way back home. The wicked step mother is dead and the father embraces the children.

I've always struggled with this fairy tale. Women are portrayed as dominant and prone to kill children, while the father is merely noted as helpless and at the mercy of his wife. Why children continue to return repeatedly to the place where they were neglected, is beyond logic.

The children are strong and great problem solvers, while the father is not able to care enough for his children so he can stand up to the step mother.

Problematic at best, this is dark and nasty. I need to understand the Grimm brothers more to see how their minds worked.