Don't get me wrong, if you have (for whatever reason) never read a version of this fairy tale, this is the version you should go for. It's dark, it's interesting, it's beautiful – the words as well as the haunting art that's a careful study of darkness and light. The illustrations were eerie, ghostly, old-timey, and were my favourite part of this tale. It felt like this story was more about the pictures, and the simplistic writing served only to string said images together, but the images themselves didn’t tell enough of the story to stand completely alone. And not a particularly interesting or unique one. There wasn't some special twist or character development. It's literally just Hansel and Gretel. The kids get "lost" in the woods, stumble upon a witch, nearly get eaten and manage to get their revenge. Gaiman did a splendid job when he retold Sleeping Beauty ( The Sleeper and the Spindle) so I was excited at the idea of another classic being twisted by his mind. I want to award Gaiman's retelling a high rating, but it's not Gaiman's story. He hasn't made it his own like he did by adding a feminist twist to Sleeping Beauty. Sure, it's been reworded, and feels smoother and more eloquent for it, but there isn't any one thing I can definitively point to that sets it apart from the original. For me, the sometimes inarticulate illustrations detracted from the reading experience, as I sat there trying to figure out what exactly I was looking at. I felt they were incongruous and would've been better placed in art book or a gallery wall where I could've appreciated them more.

Hansel and Gretel by Neil Gaiman, Lorenzo Mattotti - Waterstones Hansel and Gretel by Neil Gaiman, Lorenzo Mattotti - Waterstones

Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks. Home >And for me, the thing that is so big and so important about the darkness is [that] it’s like in an inoculation… You are giving somebody darkness in a form that is not overwhelming — it’s understandable, they can envelop it, they can take it into themselves, they can cope with it.

Hansel and Gretel - Bloomsbury Publishing

Newbery Medal–winner Neil Gaiman retells Hansel and Gretel as a story of parents plotting a murder by neglect, with full-spread India ink compositions by Lorenzo Mattotti as dark and terrifying as his forest setting. ... Gaiman's text is a study in minimalism, yet he includes every salient detail... A perfectly frightful treat.”— Shelf Awareness ,starred reviewEnjoy the traditional fairy tale 'Hansel and Gretel' in PowerPoint format, alongside directed active listening questions aimed at lower Key Stage 2 children. Questions focus on retrieval, inference and prediction skills, as well as discussing vocabulary choices and figurative language. Today, when the oven is hot enough, we will roast your brother,” she announces to Gretel. “But do not be sad. I will give you his bones to chew, little one.” Hansel & Gretel is wholly enthralling from cover to cover. It is also available as a deluxe edition— a lavish large-format volume with a die-cut cover, and dog knows die-cut treats are impossible to resist. In the years that followed, Hansel and Gretel each married well, and the people who went to their weddings ate so much fine food that their belts burst and the fat from the meat ran down their chins, while the pale moon looked down kindly on them all.” Today, when the oven is hot enough, we will roast your brother," said the old woman. "But do not be sad. I will give you his bones to chew, little one."