1. A retelling of Hansel and Gretel, which was originally recorded by the Brothers Grimm in 1812
2. Mentions of other fairy tales, such as Jack and the Beanstalk, and contains hidden search-and-find fairy tale creatures, such as The Evil Witch, in the illustrations
3. References of feminism, including the switch from "Hansel and Gretel" to "Gretel and Hansel" and the quote: "This is ridiculous! The boy gets to sit around and eat cnady while the girl has to cook and clean? Get with the times--this is the fifteenth century!"
4. The story is driven by dialogue and contains many speech bubbles; could be tied to a lesson on speech vs. thought bubbles
5. The writing style in which the storyteller and the characters interact with each other would make for an engaging read aloud
6. Bold and playful illustrations
7. One of the four (as of now) It's Not a Fairy Tale book series ( )

This is one of the wildest retellings of Hansel and Gretel I've ever read and I LOVE IT! The narrator is prevalent and Gretel lets him have it throughout the story. Hansel is just lost, following Gretel's lead. I laughed throughout it and could not wait to hear what Gretel had so say. So much fun! ( )

Goodreads Choice Awards Project: Read as many of the Best Picture Book nominees as possible. Mission complete! Though this one didn't make it to the final round...

A sassy and meta take on the traditional fairy tale. It didn't really work for me, but kids might like it and will probably have fun picking out all the cameos by the many characters from other fairy tales and nursery rhymes hanging out in the background.

Previously posted on 11/10/2019:
AMAZON CONSPIRACY THEORY!!!!! THE FIX IS IN FOR THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARDS!!!!

[book:Pirates Don't Go to Kindergarten!|41954472] was the the third lackluster book from the publisher Two Lions that I had read in three days during my Goodreads Awards project. I'd never heard of this publisher before, so I started wondering how they came out of nowhere to have not even three but SIX nominees in the opening round. A close look at the verso page revealed Two Lions is an Amazon company. And with a 7th book from Amazon Crossing Kids in the Picture Book nominees, that means somehow, magically, Amazon -- the owner of Goodreads -- managed to capture nearly half the slots in the opening round. What a coincidence!

A quick look at the other categories seems to show that Amazon is not dominating those in the same way, but this still seems pretty darn sketchy. Another good thing tainted... ( )

This was fun, but not my favorite Josh Funk. Gretel and Hansel have been turned on their head. The narrator keeps trying to warn them that their parents are evil and the witch wants to eat them, but the kids don’t believe it. The illustrations are wonderfully colorful. I think this book could be tough to read at story time, but I think it would make for great puppet theater.
#BBRC #AtoZofpicturebooks ( )