#337 of 1001 · July 3, 2021

To finish Hansel and Gretel Week, here is a version translated from German by Elizabeth D. Crawford and illustrated by Austrian artist Lisbeth Zwerger. Crawford’s translation remains deeply faithful to the text of the Brothers Grimm, right down to the last detail—present are the stepmother’s harsh remark about preparing four coffins in light of the famine, the branch tied to a dead tree, the morbid description of the witch’s evil nature, the witch’s sadistic taunting of Gretel, and the white duck that carries the children across the lake. On pages alternating with the text are Zwerger’s pictures, spare and moody with muted washes of color. Her witch displays a number of frog-like qualities: her pallid green skin, her squat, bulbous body, her hunched-over pose when recording the caged Hansel. However, in her mortal panic while being pushed into the oven by Gretel, her pupils momentarily lengthen into vertical slits like those of a cat. #forest #woods #house #witch #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcover #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookillustrations #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks