Hansel and Gretel Illustrated by Adrienne Adams

Hansel and Gretel by the Brothers Grimm,  Illustrated by Adrienne Adams, 1975.

Variations:

•  Mentions God
• Hansel drops pebbles but says he is turning back to look at a white cat on the roof
• Children think that their father is nearby in the woods, but he has fixed a tree branch to strike a tree to sound like an axe cutting wood
• Hansel drops breadcrumbs but says he is turning back to look at a dove on the roof
• Children follow a white bird to the witch's house
• House was "made out of bread and was covered with cookies."
• Witch promises no harm will come to them
• Gives detail on the witch, including her keen sense of smell
• Hansel is kept in a shed rather than a cage
• Children ride a white duck across the water to get home

Verse:

" A tap, a rap, a tap again.
Who's tapping on my windowpane?"

"It's the wind that's so wild.
It's the heavens' own child."

"Oh, little duck! Oh, little duck!
The two of us are out of luck.
No bridge, no plank. Alas, alack.
Won't you take us on your back?"

"My story is done,
See the mouse run.
If it's caught in a trap,
You can make a fur cap."

It doesn't say, but I would guess that Adams' art is collage based. Her approach to the story seems serious but not too scary. She uses many somber colors such as brown, black, and blue-grey. The father and stepmother actually look like they could be starving with shadowy eyes, weak chins and pointy noses.  The children appear very small  in comparison to their wooded surroundings. Adams' witch is a very familiar witch stereotype, minus the green skin. She is hunched over, dressed in a black peaked cap and black dress and has the expected long warty nose, sharp chin and scraggly grey hair.