"Hansel and Gretel"
Hansel & Gretel
Author: Retold by James Marshall
Genre: Traditional Literature
Grade Level: Pre-k to 3rd grade
Brother and sister lives in the forest with their father and
step mother. The great famine comes around and the family food source starts
getting scarcer than ever. The step mother blames on the children for eating
all the food and suggests the father to leave them on the woods. The father
protests but gives in to his wife who has a ferocious temper. Hansel hears his
step mother plans and begins to gather up white pebbles. When Gretel ask why he
was collecting the pebbles, “You’ll see” answers Hansel. The next morning, the
step mother and the reluctant father takes the brother and sister into the
woods. But clever Hansel leave trail of white pebble along the way. The step
mother and father leaves the children in the woods with a promise that they
will surely come back. They never do. Hansel and Gretel falls asleep and wakes
up in the middle of the night. Gretel is frightened but Hansel tells her not to
be since he knows the way home. The clever Hansel follows the white pebbles
that he left the trail of and finds the way back home. When they reach home,
the step mother is startled but the father is ecstatic to have his children
back home. They live together for a while until another famine comes around. This
time Hansel could not gather the pebbles because the step mother bolts the door
shut. They are given bread so Hansel uses the breadcrumbs as a trail as before.
The step mother and the reluctant father leaves the children again in the
middle of the woods promising them that they will come back. The night falls
and the children falls asleep. When they wake up, they begin to follow the
trail but the birds have eaten all the breadcrumbs trail so they get lost in
the wood. Deep on the forest, they see a white bird. They pursue to follow the
bird. The bird leads them to a house made of candies. The hungry Hansel and
Gretel starts eating the candy house when they hear the voice of the witch. The
witch takes Hansel a hostage and forces Gretel to work as a servant. She
demands that Hansel should be over fed so she can consume him when he gets
“plump and juicy.” The witch always checked on Hansel every morning to see if
he had gotten fatter or not. Since the witch had a very bad eye sight, Hansel would
let her feel a chicken bone to which the witch was always baffled to how thin
he was. The trick works on for quite a few days until the witch has enough and
pursue to eat Hansel. The witch asks Gretel to check if the oven was hot.
Gretel acts stupid and ask the witch how she can check that. “Goose” says the
witch and begins to check herself. Gretel pushes the witch inside the oven and
shut the door. She frees her brother and takes precious gems and coins that the
witch had. The white duck takes them back to their old house where they find
their father alone and without the stepmother. The father is delighted to see
his children and lives happily ever after.
Thoughts:
It is so good to read this book after such a long time. To
be honest, I forgot the part about the end where Hansel and Gretel gets hold of
the precious jewelries. I thought that was a nice twist. This is a great story
to read to Pre-k to 3rd grade. It teaches us about making smart
choices, being kind and protecting each other. The illustrations are really
colorful for children to enjoy this book and also, they can easily distinguish
between good and bad characters. A enjoyable book indeed!
Comments
Post a Comment