A fun view of wide-eyed Hansel and Gretel depicted in a Gothic manner. The drawings are truly terrifying but children may be attracted to the dark artwork. The artwork depicts the cannibal topic very well!
2nd grade and above.

This book is in a comic book form. A step mother talks her husband into leading his children out into the woods and killing them because she does not want her or her husband to go hungry and feels this is the only way that they will not starve. The father and stepfather lead the children into the woods and the father takes them a bit futher but cannot kill the children. He gives them a piece of bread to keep them from growing hungry for a while. After the father leaves, Gretel starts to panic and asks Hansel how they are going to get back, and Hansel mentions a bread trail. But when they turn to go back to the house, the birds have eaten all the bread. They come upon a house in the woods that is made up of candy and begin eating from it. A woman comes out of the house and pretends to be friends with the children. She locks the boy up and tells the sister that she is going to eat the brother once he is fat enough. Each day that the woman goes to check on the boy about him getting fat, she is tricked by the boy with a chickens claw so that she is thinking that he is not fat at all. At one point the girl tells the woman that her brother will never fit into the oven anyway and the woman says that her oven is so big that even SHE could fit into it. The girl asks her to prove it. As the woman is crawling into the oven, the girl pushes her in and closes the door. Then she frees her brother and they make their way back home.

I liked this version of the book. I felt that it was just the right length. I actually had not heard this story before from beginning until reading this book.

Classroom Activity: I would ask the students to pick their favorite story tale and transform it into a graphic novel. They would be allowed to draw pictures, color, etc. Then once they were finished, I would have them laminated, and they would make their own book.

Classroom Activity: I would ask each of the students to write down their response to the story. If they could change the ending of the story or the middle, how would they change it and why.

An excellent series with absolutely gorgeous, usually stylized artwork. Each title includes a glossary, history of the tale in question, and discussion questions, making them as valuable educationally as they are recreationally. I highly recommend them for anyone with children interested in fairy tales. ( )

The fairy tale Hansel and Gretel is told in graphic novel format. When their evil stepmother sends Hansel and Gretel out into the woods they find a witch's house made of candy. The characters are one dimensional. Since the fairy tale is in graphic novel format it emphasizes the evil nature of the women in the fairytale. For example, Hansel and Gretel's father is drawn in a way so that he appears innocent and weak and all of the blame is placed on the stepmother. I feel as if these aspects are less obvious in the picture book format because every line of the tale is not illustrated. I was also annoyed with the drawing of the witch or old woman who is shown as an old and blind woman. If the illustrator had made her more witch like I think it would make the tale more fantastic and less chauvinistic. The plot is simple and episodic. The setting of the dark forest and witch's house is well done. The theme is of good versus evil and the fairytale reflects the culture of European fairy tales in its style and content. The illustrations do a very good job of conveying the emotions, especially hunger, of Hansel and Gretel through their facial expressions and enormous eyes. Although, I did not enjoy this tale as much as I thought I would, I would still buy it because it is likely to be popular and engage reluctant readers. ( )