Hansel and Gretel has to be one of the spookiest fairy tales ever written! Brother and sister are abandoned in the woods by their father and evil stepmother and if that’s not bad enough they then stubble upon a mesmerisingly beautiful gingerbread house only to find a witch living inside who captures them and intends to fatten them up before eating them. Rather grim?
The really beautiful thing about this new retelling by Newbery medal winning author Cynthia Rylant is that she has instilled in Hansel and Gretel a real cleverness and resilience.
‘It has been said that guardian spirits watch over and protect small children, and that may be so. But there are also stories of children who find the courage to protect themselves. Such is the story of Hansel and Gretel’
She gives us characters to admire and to barrack for, not just to revel in the horror of the situation. For centuries children have adored gruesome fairy tales and fables. They seem to really enjoy the scariness as well as the empowerment they get from reading about brave children overcoming the scariness.
There is no one more perfect to have illustrated this retelling than the amazingly talented artist Jen Corace. Corace has created the lushest illustrations, using greens and browns as the main tones but adding splashes of the richest red, mustard yellow and teal. Gretel’s duffle coat is a glorious teal blue and really to die for.
Her use of light and shadow gives a deliciously creepy depth to the woods that surround the children, she makes the children seem small in an immense situation. Her illustrations have a funky edge to them as well as keeping an old fashioned feel that suits the retelling so well.
Jen Corace also illustrated the gorgeous Little Hoot and Little Pea. She writes a blog and you can buy her prints from Mahar Drygoods and Tinyshowcase.
||Hansel and Gretel available online from the we heart books store||
I’ll definitely be looking out for this one. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!