When
hard times hit Hansel and Gretel’s family, their father takes them into the
woods and leaves them there. The storyteller says it was part of an evil plot
to get rid of the children. But the two urchins know he was just going home for
blankets to keep them warm, and then he lost his way.

In It’s
Not Hansel and Gretel, writer Josh Funk brings humor to the classic
fairy tale, with the children challenging the narrator every step of the way. He
insists there were breadcrumbs, they say no way. He says an evil witch lives in
the house in the forest, they are quite sure she’s a sweet old lady. Gretel objects
to Hansel always coming first in the telling; Hansel puffs up from a strawberry
allergy. In the end, the children take over telling the story and create their
own fairy tale finish.

Edwardian
Taylor’s illustrations show two big-eyed innocents who look for the good in the
people around them and love unicorns and rainbows. Pages are filled with lots
of color and details that are fun to discover, like the mouse musketeer in the
witch’s kitchen, and a cast of bad characters from other fairy tales lurking in
the woods.

It’s
all great fun for parents and children, who are bound to get a chuckle out of
this inventive retelling of Hansel and Gretel for modern times.

The publisher
provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.