Beni Montresor (1926–2001)

Hansel and Gretel is a story that goes way back, im unsure of what happens in the classic version of hansel and gretel. In this story Hansel and Gretel, the two children initially walk into the woods looking for strawberries to eat. They then ended up eating all the strawberries they found and fell asleep only to awaken in front a castle of the witch that eats children. The witch then locked hansel into a cage and told gretel to prepare the pot to cook him. But while the witch was not looking gretel freed hansel and they were able to get away.… (més)

The setting starts off this fairy tale already dark. We hear of the dark creepy woods the kids go in to look for dinner. Already witches and devils are associated as supernatural beings living there in our minds. Again the book reminds us of such and forewarns us of such evil coming. At first, I thought the language of them sleeping they would be dragged into the witches house then but instead, they were reeled in by delicious smells. Although this book was similar to the cannibalism and the witch of other versions the big castle was a change. I had remembered this being more of a gingerbread house or house made of sweets to lure the kids in. Some versions were much more descriptive. The images could have better portrayed what was occurring this version was not as detailed as my memories of versions I read as a child.… (més)

In this version of the classic tale, Beni Montresor uses illustrations to portray the story much more than he uses words. The actual writing style present in the book definitely isn't the greatest; language is very simple, and honestly, a bit dull. The words are neither exciting nor lively and they do very little for readers. Much of the emphasis is placed on the illustrations, where brightly colored silhouettes carry the story. This is a great version of story to read with younger children, when the interest isn't necessarily in the writing but in the pictures. Because of the simplicity of the language, this version of the story is probably the least gruesome of the many out there, but the images do help to portray the "anyone can overcome evil" theme that all versions of "Hansel and Gretel" have.… (més)