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HANSEL AND GRETEL

Name: HANSEL AND GRETEL
Author: Rika Lesser
ISBN: 978-0-525-46152-4

adapted by Rika Lesser & illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 26, 1984

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An odd, static work for Zelinsky—composed of painterly, Old Master paintings. But these have the eerie, haunting quality of German Romanticism (or, sometimes, of Balthus)—with intimations of real malevolence in the mother who'd leave the children in the forest, truly Wagnerian visions of the forest at sundown and in moonlight, distorted perspectives and drastic foreshortenings in the scenes of imminent danger, and even a welcome-home from their father that works in the same gestural mode. The telling is also stern, unadorned. (Lesser's appended Note explains the omission of the familiar, "Nibble, nibble, little mouse / Who's that nibbling at my house?") For anyone who wants a cruel and joyous, dire and tender "Hansel and Gretel," this is it—with the screaming old witch visible through the door of the burning oven as Gretel slams it shut. But be warned: It's the story of good triumphing over evil, not a fairy tale with a happy ending.

Pub Date: Nov. 26, 1984

ISBN: 978-0-525-46152-4

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Dutton

Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1984

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
A HAND FULL OF STARS
by Rafik Schami ; translated by Rika Lesser

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THE NONSENSE SHOW

by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 13, 2015

A picture book made to incite pleasure and joy.

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The celebrated picture-book artist enthusiastically joins the nonsense tradition.

Carle’s nearly 50-year career has produced myriad concept books about counting, the alphabet, and colors, as well as simple, original stories, retellings of fairy tales, and picture books that push the physical boundaries of the form. This latest proves that Carle can reinvent himself as a creator in the field, as he now revels in the absurd, eschewing any pretense of teaching a concept or even engaging with story. Instead, spread after spread uses nonsensical text and sublimely ridiculous pictures to provoke laughter and head-shaking delight. In addition to the book’s title, art immediately cues the book’s silly tone: the cover displays one of Carle’s signature collages against an empty white background; it depicts a duckling emerging from a peeled-back banana peel. The title-page art presents a deer sprouting flowers rather than antlers from its head. When the book proper begins, and language joins illustration, readers are ushered into a series of situations and scenarios that upend expectations and play with conventions. “Ouch! Who’s that in my pouch?” asks a kangaroo with a little blond child instead of a joey in her pouch. Another scene shows two snakes, joined at the middle and looking for their respective tails.

A picture book made to incite pleasure and joy. (Picture book. 3-7)

Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-399-17687-6

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Philomel

Review Posted Online: July 21, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015

Categories:

CHILDREN'S GENERAL CHILDREN'S

- BOOK REVIEW
WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE FOOD?
edited by Eric Carle

- BOOK REVIEW
WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE BUG?
edited by Eric Carle

- BOOK REVIEW
MY FIRST I SEE YOU
by Eric Carle ; illustrated by Eric Carle

- PROFILES
Eric Carle

- IN THE NEWS
Children’s Book Creator Eric Carle Dies at 91

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THE TWITS

by Roald Dahl illustrated by Quentin Blake ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1981

Dahl describes all this unredeemed viciousness with a spirited, malevolent glee that plays shamelessly, and no doubt...

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The nasty streak that lurks in Dahl's stories for adults and children comes out with a vengeance in his characterization of Mr. and Mrs. Twit and the nasty tricks they play on one another.

Dahl's first sentence—"What a lot of hairy-faced men there are around nowadays"—might suggest that the manuscript has been sitting in a drawer for a decade; but if so it hasn't mellowed. Dahl will lose most reading-aloud adults straight off with his description of all the disgusting leftovers more or less permanently lodged in bathless Mr. Twit's beard. Ugly Mrs. Twit with her ugly thoughts is no more attractive. She puts her glass eye in her husband's beer glass and "cackles" (she would cackle) "I told you I was watching you. I've got eyes everywhere." He in turn puts a frog in her bed. She feeds him worms for spaghetti. He, borrowing an old ploy, gradually builds up her walking stick so she'll think she is shrinking. To cure her of the purported "shrinks" he subjects her to a stretching—which, however, backfires for him. Then Dalai turns to the birds, whom Mr. Twit catches for his pies by putting glue on their tree branches. The Twits also keep a family of monkeys they train to perform upside down. At last the birds and monkeys do in the Twits with an ingenious punishment that fits their crimes.

Dahl describes all this unredeemed viciousness with a spirited, malevolent glee that plays shamelessly, and no doubt successfully, to kids' malicious impulses and unmerciful sense of justice.