Hansel and Gretel

Hansel and Gretel is a traditional literature book written by Lucy Kincaid and illustrated by Eric Kincaid. The book didn't win any major awards, but I personally enjoyed the illustration throughout the book. This book is definitely geared towards younger children, probably in Kindergarten-1st grade. This book is about two children who live with their father and stepmother, and one day they hear the stepmother telling the father that they can't afford to feed the children, so she plans to take them out in the forest and leave them there. Hansel and Gretel hear this, and Hansel makes a plan to leave a trail of pebbles from their garden to find their way back home. The next day, the father and stepmother take them out into the woods and leave them there, but the children find their way back home. Hansel and Gretel hear the stepmother talking that she wants to take them deeper into the forest this time, and Hansel tries to collect more pebbles but the stepmother had locked the garden. The next day, Hansel leaves a trail of breadcrumbs to try and find their way back, but when night fell, they weren't able to find them. After a few days, Hansel and Gretel stumble across a house made of candy, but there is an evil witch who takes them and is trying to fatten Hansel up to eat him. One day, Gretel tricks the witch and pushes her into the oven, and Gretel is able to free her brother Hansel and as they're leaving they filled their pockets with treasure. When they returned, the father told the children their stepmother and passed and they were able to live together happily.

I usually wouldn't read this book in my classroom, because to me it is pretty creepy and makes me a bit uncomfortable thinking about a witch wanting to eat children. Especially if I had younger children that might get scared easily, I wouldn't want to scare them in my class. This book is definitely geared towards younger children because it has a very large font and pictures so younger children can understand. Because of the large font and simple words, I think in the class it would be great to allow children to practice their reading with a story
they might be familiar with.