Laurence Anholt

Fairy-tale meets space opera in this amusing pastiche of the classic Brothers Grimm story concerning that unfortunate brother and sister, Hansel and Gretel. Though loved by their hapless father, who runs a highly unsuccessful knitting shop, the siblings find themselves ejected into space by their hateful, rocket-inventing stepmother, Luna Tick. Finding their way home the first time through an unraveling sweater, they are not so lucky the second, encountering the Space Witch in her broomstick rocket, and accompanying her back to her volcanic home. Can Hansel and Gretel escape the witch, who is intent on eating them...?

One of six entries in author Laurence Anholt and illustrator Arthur Robins' Seriously Silly Scary Fairy Tales series, which offer up lighthearted retellings of frightening fair-tales, Hansel and Gretel and the Space Witch is a book I tracked down (why else?) because of my interest in highly illustrated children's books featuring witches. More than half of each page here is devoted to Robins' artwork, so although this is more textually advanced than an early reader—I would classify it with beginning chapter books, in terms of level, despite it not having chapters—it fits the parameters of my "witchy witches" project.

In any case, I found the book entertaining, appreciating the humorous tone, and the way in which this familiar story is adapted, with the forest becoming outer space, and the witch's cottage becoming a space dome on a volcano-littered alien planet. As for the witch herself, I appreciated some of the details of her appearance, from her claw-like fingers to her long nose, tied in a knot. I think young readers who are just graduating from leveled early readers to longer fiction will enjoy this one as well, particularly if they like fairy tales, space adventures, and/or frightening stories, all told with tongue-in-cheek humor.… (mehr)