Hansel and Gretel illustrated by Anthony Browne

Bookseller blurb: This is a retelling of this famous, dark fairytale from award-winning author-illustrator Anthony Browne. "Hansel and Gretel" is perhaps the darkest and greatest of the fairytales from the Brothers Grimm. This extraordinary book brings the classic childhood tale to a new generation courtesy of one of the world's greatest picture book artists, Hans Christian Andersen Award-winner Anthony Browne.

Book Trust: Anthony Browne's Hansel and Gretel, adapted from the translation by Eleanor Quarrie, has a distinctly contemporary feel. This is enhanced by the humorous illustrations: the woodcutter, for example, has a television set in his home, and the cruel stepmother, trips daintily along in high heels and a striking yellow coat, a cigarette hanging from her mouth. 

The library where I am working as a volunteer had a collection of books for teachers to use with a student welfare program. Since this program is no longer used, she has decided to abandon the boxes. I spied Hansel and Gretel in one box and asked to borrow it. You will have a better understanding about why this book (published in 1981) is my focus further into this blog post but first off I need to say this is a picture book yes, this is a fairy tale yes, but it is also a book for much older students - did you guess that?

Vocabulary: famine; fretting; planks; coffins; grieved; new coins; wakened; lagging; brushwood; weariness; widespread; scolded; reproached; perish; and gnawing.

There has been some discussion on Facebook today about Picture Books for our older Primary readers in Grades 5 and 6. I was immensely proud of my senior picture book collection. A question was asked about encouraging kids to borrow and read these and also about loaning them to younger students - even Kindergarten.  Can you hear me sighing. On this blog 135 books have the label "Senior Picture Book". These are among my most favourite books.

There are simpler less confronting versions of Hansel and Gretel but this is one example of a book that I would place with my senior picture books. This version illustrated by Anthony Browne is not designed for your very youngest library visitors.

The Teacher-Librarian on social media wanted to know what to do with picture books for older readers. Her concern was about usage. My answer - First off how can the kids know these books contain stories that Grade 5 and 6 kids will really enjoy? That is easy - promote, promote and promote again.

Then use these books, read them, add them to your library sessions and pass them onto the teachers to read. These books all formed the basis of my teaching with senior classes because they contain powerful stories and also, since my sessions were weekly and only 40 minutes, it was easy to read one of these and then have a really in-depth discussion. Have you seen the wonderful NCACL (National Centre for Australian Children's Literature) Picture Books for Older Readers database. This is a resource that should be shared with the teachers in your school and one to give you ideas about books to add to your own library collection.  

Here is a tiny selection of my own favourites from the hundreds of books I had on my senior picture bookshelves (Australian titles and international titles) plus a few that I discovered recently:

 (Note the initial question on Facebook was actually a about possibly labelling some picture books to indicate they could/should be read by or shared with an adult. I may talk about this idea in a later post).