We all know the story here, Hansel and Gretel taken into the woods to die when they find a witch's cottage yadah yadah yadah
This is King's retelling, and it's pretty standard stuff. No real changes to the story. he's simplified his style a touch for the younger readers and there's only the well known little bits of violence in there.
Sendak's artwork is the usual high quality workmanship, colourful and slightly surreal.
There's an introduction by King to tell us how the project came about.
He actually wrote in Danse Macabre an interesting section about this story and how the subject matter would be something people would not read to their kids if they stopped to think about it, amoral stepmother, evil dad (he knows he shouldn't leave the kids to die but does it anyway, so he's evil. She sees nothing wrong with it, it's just a way for them to live- so she's amoral) abandon two children to die. This is followed by enforced slavery, attempted cannibalism and justifiable homicide.
He's got a point. I'll still be buying this for my youngest niece for Christmas though.
No comments:
Post a Comment