PUBLISHER: Citadel Press,1991
GENRE: Children's fiction
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: A
SYNOPSIS: After reading the classic tale of Hansel and Gretel, the reader is invited to turn the book upside down and read an updated version in which Hansel and Gretel are naughty children who take advantage of a good witch.
MY THOUGHTS/SPOILERS: Sheila Black's version of Hansel and Gretel is basically the same as the original, so I liked it a lot, as well as the full color illustrations. I really liked The Witch's Story, where the witch, Agatha, paints herself as a victim of Hansel and Gretel when they showed up on her property and started eating her house.
Agatha lives with her gray cat, Selina, and claims the two children tied her up to put her in the oven to bake her after she let them in the house with an offer of baking them an apple cake. Her sister Tabitha shows up and works some magic with her wand and rescues her sister. Hansel tells Gretel he knows the witch plans to eat them because he read it in a book. What a clever thing to add to the story. They get along in the end. The witch waves her magic wand and their pockets are filled with jewels. That reminds me of the Charles Perrault story The Fairies, where a fairy makes jewels come out of a girl's mouth.
Here are three images from the book.
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