Hansel & Gretel

This week we have chosen Hansel & Gretel by Neil Gaiman and Lorenzo Mattotti, I am so pleased that I chose this version by this author, you can find his web page here

I started to read the book to the kids and they where gripped from the start, I wanted to stop at an appropriate place to grab a coffee, but no.. the kids insisted I continue right to the end.

We normally take turns reading aloud but I was so transfixed on watching the kids eyes grow like wide saucers I decided to keep going myself, their reaction to the book was beautiful to watch, they where so engrossed in the story.

The book also has some beautiful illustrations throughout which the kids enjoyed looking at and discussing the details.

 This book was actually a bonus book which accompanied another Neil Gaiman book The Sleeper and The spindle which I purchased off ebay, the seller brought it to my attention and I decided to buy it, at £1, certainly I could not grumble, I am so glad I did, we would have missed literary treat if I had decided not to buy it.

Over the week we then discussed storylines, such as the characters and what made them unique and the settings (plot) the language used, we also watched the Opera Hansel and Gretel and the old film Hansel and Gretel

This has been a really nice book to cover, the story is dark but has a few demonstrable points to it, other than demonstrating to the kids of the many different ways a story can be told but also gives them some moral lessons too.