April 1, 2009
Gr 1-3-Isadora's abbreviated retelling of the popular Grimm Brothers tale closely follows the original in both plot and detail while making the story more accessible to a younger audience. With the same artistic style she used in her adaptations of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" (2007) and "The Fisherman and His Wife" (2008, both Putnam), she again sets her tale in Africa, piecing colorfully patterned and hand-painted papers together to create bold, busy eye-catching scenes with a strong ethnic feel, although no specific culture is featured. Scenes include a thatch-roofed hut, a large orange sun, coconut palms, and trees shaped like baobabs. Faces cut from brown-streaked paper in silhouette style are, nevertheless, filled with emotion, resulting from the shapes and placement of eyes and mouths. Even young children will comprehend the domineering stepmother; the meek father; and the fearful, disbelieving children. While most scenes are set against stark white backgrounds, several night scenes, filled with an array of wildlife, appear dark and foreboding, but not overly scary. The witch, a black-costumed hag with green hands and face and red-highlighted eyes, provides the only potentially frightening element. Those youngsters who can deal with the malice of stepmother and witch will delight in this highly artistic and unusual presentation."Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH"
Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
January 1, 2009
Preschool-G As in The Princess and the Pea (2007) and numerous other retellings, Isadora sets a traditional European fairy tale in an African setting. This time, Isadora chooses one of the scariest stories evertold about small kids who must fight evil, powerful adults. Spare prosecombines withlush, bright cut-paper collage illustrations that showHansel and Gretelabandoned in the dense forest, lured and locked up, and then finally triumphant after they trick thewitch and push her into the burning oven. The immensely detailed double-page spreads are dense with jungle animals and plants, but the real terror is inside the witchs house, filled with dark silhouettes. Drawing on beautiful, geometric African patterns common to traditional Kente cloth, Isadora balances her compositions with soothing white space. Kids willbe held bythis strong retelling of the familiar story about a brave boy and girl who overcome alooming threat and find their way home.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)
July 1, 2009
This Africa-set telling showcases Hansel's quick thinking and Gretel's bravery. Persecuted by their stepmother and the witch, the kids are also eyed by jungle animals, frogs, and spiders. Each spread (of striated cut-paper and oil paint collage in myriad patterns) is attentively designed and illustrated, with special care paid to facial expressions and body language.
(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
May 1, 2009
Among Isadora's European fairy-tale retellings set in Africa (The Fisherman and His Wife, rev. 3/08; The Twelve Dancing Princesses, rev. 9/07), this is the most kid-friendly. The telling, which hews closely to the Grimms' version, showcases Hansel's quick thinking in marking the siblings' path and Gretel's bravery in handily dispatching the witch. Along the way, each spread (of striated cut-paper and oil paint collage in myriad patterns) is attentively designed to reflect the scene's action. Special care is paid to facial expressions (the greedy stepmother's downward-angled eyebrows, the children's glee upon finding the candy house) and body language (brother and sister huddled together, hands clasped, to face danger). In addition to the threats posed by their wicked stepmother and the evil witch, the kids are also eyed by the jungle animals they unintentionally disturb while wandering lost; in the witch's house, too, there are unfriendly creatures to contend with, though the postures of the frogs, spiders, and lizards dangling haphazardly from the bars of Hansel's cage evoke humor rather than fear. On the last spread, the children are reunited with their father, their two cats looking on. There's lots of white space holding the formerly constricting jungle at bay, keeping the focus on the contented little family.
(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)