Hansel and Gretel

A poor woodcutter's two children, lost in the woods, come upon a gingerbread house inhabited by a wicked witch

Kindergarten-Grade 3 A new version of this old warhorse needs some special hook to hang it above the crowd. Browne (Watts, 1982; o.p.) set his in modern times, and Zelinsky (Dodd, 1984) used a pastiche of 18th-Century German painting styles to mark his efforts. Gross' text uses a modern vernacular mode that's O.K., but it too often intrudes on Pels' grainy, low-keyed pictures. He tries to create atmospheric interiors and forest scenes, but the framed rectangles of words destroy his attempts. Further, by placing the figures in the middle or backgrounds, he devotes inordinate attention to studies of flowers and fruits. The characters are less than convincing as well. The father looks ancient with his all-white hair, beard, and bushy eyebrows, hardly a likely progenitor of the two youngsters. And the kids are sometimes depicted as quite young and at other times like pre-adolescents. Gretel, in particular, has occasions of Lolita-like appearance, patricularly in a scene in which she gets up from her bed in the witch's house with one shoulder bared and eyes demurely downcast. On the next page, all roughed up, with lipstick glistening and voluptuous bare legs crossed (her hands here are adult hands) she seems to be projecting a seductive glance at the staring, red-eyed witch. In general, the anatomy is often unconvincing. The strength is in the composition and suggestiveness of the settings and the subtle blending of somber colors. Kenneth Marantz, Art Education Department, Ohio State University, Columbus
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.