Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Hansel and Gretel: A Pop-Up Book
Novelty Book
For ages 5 to 8
Tango Books, 2011 ISBN: 978-1857078152
There once was a woodcutter who had two children called Hansel and Gretel. The children’s stepmother was a wicked woman, and when a famine made food scarce, she advised her worried husband to get rid of the children or “we will all die of hunger.” At first, the woodcutter refused to consider his wife’s proposition, but eventually, late one night, he agreed. He did not know that the two children had heard every word that was said, and that they knew what their father and his wife were planning.
The next morning, the woodcutter and his wife took the children deep into the forest. The woodcutter built them a fire and then, while the tired children slept, he and his wife left. When the children woke up, they found that they were all alone and Gretel cried because she was afraid that they would never find their way home. Thankfully, Hans had left a trail of pebbles behind him as he walked into the forest, and the children were able to follow this trail back to their home.
The stepmother was not happy to see the children again, and she decided that she and her husband would take the children back to the forest. This time, Hans could not leave a trail of pebbles, so he left a trail of breadcrumbs instead. When he and his sister awoke to find that they were alone again, they could not find their way back home because the animals in the forest had eaten all their breadcrumbs.
In this beautiful pop-up book, Louise Rowe’s retelling of the famous Brother’s Grimm story will delight children who enjoy fairytales. Six cunningly crafted pop-ups are accompanied by mini books, and children will enjoy seeing the scenes described in the story pop-up in front of their eyes as they turn the pages.
