bookshelf

GRETEL AND HANSEL

Name: GRETEL AND HANSEL
Author: Bee Waeland
ISBN: 9781459833821

by Bee Waeland ; illustrated by Bee Waeland ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 16, 2023

Another wry romp in the author/illustrator’s alternate fairyland, where justice is served to recalcitrant half-pints.

bookshelf

Waeland (The Three Bears and Goldilocks, 2022) fractures a second familiar fairy tale in this graphically crisp, wordless project.

As the inverted title telegraphs, twists await. A gray-haired witch in owlish red spectacles bakes sweets, a black cat nearby. After a woodcutter and two children reach the forest, Gretel and Hansel wander after a scuttling fox; a robin swiftly consumes Gretel’s scattered baguette crumbs. Discovering the witch’s delectably edible cottage, the pair—eyes popping like candy pinwheels—commence gobbling it, licking lollipops and chomping slabs of cookie siding. The witch invites them inside, and their boots dry beside the woodstove’s crackling fire. The rowdy duo devour a cherry-topped Black Forest cake, candies, fruit, and more—leaving a messy wake that includes an overturned cauldron and cat dish. The witch exacts revenge: A lightning bolt from a star-tipped wand reaches the fleeing Hansel, who is turned into a frog. The woodcutter searches for and tearfully reunites with the children—though the trio seem relatively unbothered by Hansel’s species switch. Meanwhile, the witch and the sleek cat enjoy refreshments, including a cookie with a sly resemblance to Gretel. Flat color and simple, bold shapes yield easily decoded visuals in this quirky, humorous tale. The woodcutter and children have brown skin; Hansel and the woodcutter sport black hair, while Gretel’s tresses match the witch’s flax-colored skin. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Another wry romp in the author/illustrator’s alternate fairyland, where justice is served to recalcitrant half-pints. (Picture book. 3-5)

Pub Date: May 16, 2023

ISBN: 9781459833821

Page Count: 64

Publisher: Orca

Review Posted Online: March 13, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

bookshelf

PRINCESSES WEAR PANTS

by Savannah Guthrie & Allison Oppenheim ; illustrated by Eva Byrne ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 12, 2017

Skip it

bookshelf

This book wants to be feminist.

Princess Penelope Pineapple, illustrated as a white girl with dark hair and eyes, is the Amelia Bloomer of the Pineapple Kingdom. She has dresses, but she prefers to wear pants as she engages in myriad activities ranging from yoga to gardening, from piloting a plane to hosting a science fair. When it’s time for the Pineapple Ball, she imagines wearing a sparkly pants outfit, but she worries about Grand Lady Busyboots’ disapproval: “ ‘Pants have no place on a lady!’ she’d say. / ‘That’s how it has been, and that’s how it shall stay.’ ” In a moment of seeming dissonance between the text and art, Penny seems to resolve to wear pants, but then she shows up to the ball in a gown. This apparent contradiction is resolved when the family cat, Miss Fussywiggles, falls from the castle into the moat and Princess Penelope saves her—after stripping off her gown to reveal pink, flowered swimming trunks and a matching top. Impressed, Grand Lady Busyboots resolves that princesses can henceforth wear whatever they wish. While seeing a princess as savior rather than damsel in distress may still seem novel, it seems a stretch to cast pants-wearing as a broadly contested contemporary American feminist issue. Guthrie and Oppenheim’s unimaginative, singsong rhyme is matched in subtlety by Byrne’s bright illustrations.

Skip it . (Picture book. 3-5)

Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-4197-2603-3

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Abrams

Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
PRINCESSES SAVE THE WORLD
by Savannah Guthrie & Allison Oppenheim illustrated by Eva Byrne

bookshelf

ONE LOVE

by Bob Marley & adapted by Cedella Marley & illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 5, 2011

Though this celebration of community is joyful, there just is not much here.

bookshelf

A sugary poem, very loosely based on the familiar song, lacks focus.

Using only the refrain from the original (“One love, one heart, let’s get together and feel all right!”), the reggae great’s daughter Cedella Marley sees this song as her “happy song” and adapts it for children. However, the adaptation robs it of life. After the opening lines, readers familiar with the original song (or the tourism advertisement for Jamaica) will be humming along only to be stopped by the bland lines that follow: “One love, what the flower gives the bee.” and then “One love, what Mother Earth gives the tree.” Brantley-Newton’s sunny illustrations perfectly reflect the saccharine quality of the text. Starting at the beginning of the day, readers see a little girl first in bed, under a photograph of Bob Marley, the sun streaming into her room, a bird at the window. Each spread is completely redundant—when the text is about family love, the illustration actually shows little hearts floating from her parents to the little girl. An image of a diverse group getting ready to plant a community garden, walking on top of a river accompanies the words “One love, like the river runs to the sea.”

Though this celebration of community is joyful, there just is not much here. (afterword) (Picture book. 3-5)