Morpurgo, M., Chichester, C. E. (2008). Hansel and Gretel. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.
Grades 1 through 3

Gabriel and Lisette’s life is perfect. They love each other, and they have been blessed with two beautiful children, Hansel and Gretel. Their happiness does not go unnoticed. Deep in the woods lives a witch, an ugly and evil woman who falls in love with Gabriel and decides to take Lisette’s life. She transforms the wife into a weeping willow, gives herself the appearance of a beautiful woman, and designs a plot to make it look like Lisette drowned in spite of her efforts to save her. She bewitches Gabriel, who ends up marrying her. The children, however, cannot love their stepmother. The witch, whose name is now Belladonna, plots to get rid of the children and forces Gabriel to leave them in the woods. He does but instructs them to follow a path of stones. Belladonna is furious when the children return unharmed, and once more she pressures Gabriel to leave them in the woods. This time, instead of stones Gabriel leave a trail of bread. Belladonna shifts into a bird and eats the bread; the children are lost, and Gabriel assumes they are dead. The witch, unable to gain Gabriel’s love, turns him into a stone and decides that she will eat the children. As a bird, she leads the children to a house of gingerbread where a sweet old lady leaves. Hansel and Gretel stuff themselves, fall asleep, and when Gretel wakes up, Hansel in locked in a cage, and the old lady reveals herself to be the witch. The witch forces Gretel to fatten her brother up so that he may make a great meal. Gretel, however, is more ingenious and devises a plan taking advantage of the witch’s blindness. When the witch, fed up that Hansel does not gain any weight, decides to eat the boy anyway, Gretel’s ingenious mind is once again at work, and she is able to push the witch into the oven, where she burns to death. The wood creatures help Hansel and Gretel return home, where the spells are broken and Gabriel and Lisette are back to their human forms. The family is reunited to live happily every after.

Marpugo and Chichester’s Hansel and Gretel is a revision of the old German classic. The main elements have been left—the witch, the gingerbread house, the plot to leave the children in the woods, The children’s wit—but the beginning of the tale has been changed considerably to include the witch as the second wife, the parents’ transformation, and a much more caring and compassionate father. The story becomes much longer, and for those who know the original, it seems as though the plot drags from quite some time until readers reach the climax. If many of the elements have been softened, the witch’s cannibalistic intend and her painful death were kept unchanged. The watercolor and colored pencil illustrations help create the mood of the story, with special attention to Belladona’s cold green eyes and the dark woods that take up the two center pages. ( )

The classic tale of Hansel and Gretel lost in the woods and captured by the evil witch. Only this time, the witch is there step mother who turned there mother into a tree in order to capture the heart of their father and destroy the brother sister duo. The witch hopes to have their fathers love all to her self. Little does she realize how much the family loves each other and how far Hansel and Gretel are willing to fight for each others lives when in her capture.

I have read many versions of this classic Grimm’s Brother fairy tales before however I was very pleased with this one. The story is self is lengthy for a children’s “typical book” but it was never to hard understand. The photos were beautiful and a great addition to the story. They reminded me of folk and peasant Germany with traditional clothing you might now see on a heritage dancer. It’s a good story of hope, love, perseverance and family. ( )