Hansel and Gretel

Hansel and Gretel
By James Marshall
Traditional Literature

In this story, a boy named Hansel and a girl named Gretel live with their dad and their step mother.  Their dad works hard but they still do not have enough to buy food for all so their stepmother convinces their dad to get rid of them.  Hansell overheard when the stepmother said that her and their dad would take them to the deep woods and leave them there.  Hansel told Greel not to worry and he went outside during the night to pick up stones that shone at night.  When their dad and stepmother took Hansel and Gretel to the deep woods, Hansel left a trail of stones on the ground as they walked out into the woods.  After Hansel and Gretel were left in the woods by their dad and stepmother, they waited until night and found their way back home.  After a little while the stepmother convinced their dad to do it again but this time she had locked the door of the house and Hansel could not get shiny stones. When they lef, Hansel left pieces of bread but the birds ate them.  This time the dad and stepmother took them further I to the woods and left them there.  Hansel and Gretel could not find their way home this time.  They wandered until they found a house  made of candy.  Inside was a witch who locked Hansel in a cage to fatten him up and eat him.  He gained weight but hoodwinked the witch into thinking he was still skinny since the witch could not see.  She finally told Gretel to see if the oven was hot enough to cook Hansel even if he was not yet fat.  Gretel said she could not reach and when the witch tried to show her, Gretel pushed her in the oven and the witch died.  After that Hansel and Gretel found the witches treasure and took all they could with them.  They found their way home and their dad was so, so happy.  Their stepmother had already died and they had enough of the treasure to live happy for the rest of their lives.

I would use this book in many classroom because it is a very good story and the children would enjoy it.  I would read this to the children as a read aloud book.  After the read aloud I would have them do an activity like building a gingerbread house to represent the house in the story.  This book is good for Kindergarten- 2nd grade.