This is the fourth (I think?) of John Patience’s retold fairytales I’ve read, and it falls somewhere in the middle in terms of success. Patience excels at depicting forest scenery and the magical aspects of these tales, but the story of Hansel and Gretel is almost too mundane for his talents. The major magical aspect - the witch and her candy cottage - doesn’t quite live up to expectations, since he depicts the witch as a far too soft granny and she doesn’t really undergo a wicked transformation when her true nature is revealed. The candy cottage itself is well enough done, but it isn’t really anything special and its forest setting isn’t depicted enough to give the full sense of enchantment. Ironically, the silhouettes with marbled backgrounds that fill the beginning and end papers of the story would have actually done nicely to illustrate the whole story in a much more effective way - the silhouettes and foreground details providing a darkness to the tale, combined with the whimsically magical multicoloured background to enhance the magical aspects of the story in a more unique way. ( )

I loved this book! I have always been a fan of Hansel and Gretel, reading the pop-up version was even better! I loved the illustrations and pop-ups. Children will love the 3D look, and the colorful illustrations of the witches house. I also enjoyed the ideas and organization in this book. I have read many versions of this book, but this particular version really pulled out the main ideas without boring the audience with long added details. The overall message is the importance of family, and the bond between parents and children. ( )

In this book, there are 2 children, Hansel and Gretel and their father and their stepmother. Since they running low on food and money, the stepmother decides to bring them out into the woods and get them lost. But when Hansel and Gretel are going out to the woods Hansel knows they are going to be left out in the woods so he brings rocks and leaves a trail. so they find their way back once then the stepmother sees them and brings them out to the woods again but all Hansel had this time was bread and the birds ate it, so he didnt know his way back home. As they are wondering in the woods they run across and little gingerbread house and they start eating the house and the witch asks who eating her house and hansel says its just the wind, but the witch finds them and brings them into her house. At first she is really nice to them because she is feeding them and then she hansel and puts him in a bird cage and tells him that when he gets fat enough, shes going to eat him. Gretel has to feed Hansel and clean and cook for the witch. Everytime the witch checks to see if he has gotten fatter, he sticks a bone out instead of his finger. then one day the witch to finally cook Hansel so she starts to oven and tells to get in it to see if it is hot enough. But Gretel doesn't know how to climb into the oven, so the witch pushes Gretel out of the way and shows her how to climb into the oven, then Gretel pushes her in and locks it. Hansel and Gretel escape and find their father.