Hansel and Gretel

 By Cynthia Rylant
Illustrated by Jen Corace


I wasn't a fan of this one.  I was torn with the art, because I'm drawn to it, but it's also very hipster.  I don't think my daughter liked it much.

The text was pretty dreadful, too.  I mean, Hansel and Gretel is a weird story from a series of weird stories, and the author is trying to make sense of the abstract details when, really, she should just let it be.

The hipster art is actually pretty good as far as the depictions of the characters.  Their lifeless expressions make the story pretty damn creepy.  But then there's the delicious cottage...  with almost no colour.  I know that usually the cottage is drawn in a particularly gaudy fashion, but surely there could be some compromise?  It doesn't look like it's made of baked goods.

The witch is frightening, because of the bland and understated way in which she's drawn.  My daughter loved the story, but hated the book because the whole thing was way, way too scary.  On top of it all, I took issue with all the extra passages talking about how brave Hansel and Gretel were, like this is supposed to be some moralistic tale or something.

I got this book out because I felt like I was doing my children a disservice by not having fairy tales in the house.  But now that I've had such bad luck finding good ones, I'm pretty apathetic about adding any to our library for the time being.