The story of Hansel and Gretel, two children abandoned by their parents to the fortunes of the wild, is given new life by the fabulous illustrations of Paul Zelinsky. Hansel, a boy of infinite resourcefulness, continually comes up with ways to thwart their parent’s (mostly their mother’s) plot. But even Hansel’s cleverness falls short when his trail of breadcrumbs leading home gets eaten by birds. The children, thus left to wander in the wilderness, by good luck happen across a house made of candy. However, it turns out a witch is the primary inhabitant, and Hansel is captured. But resourcefulness seems to run in the family, for Gretel devises a way to get rid of the witch. With the witch dead, the two children loot the house and return home. They find out their mother has died, but since she was the one who wanted to abandon them in the first place, they didn’t mind much.
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