BHH

Book:

In A Tale Dark and Grimm there is a narrator who is telling the story. The narrator talks to the reader throughout the book informing and warning us about what happened and what is about to come. The story is the true story of Hansel and Gretel. The book begins with the story of their father and his faithful servant. The servant had served this family for many generations and had "under-stood" them. He went above and beyond to keep them safe to the point of turning to stone for what the kingdom thought was treason. After they realized he was protecting the king and queen they brought him back to life by sacrificing their own children. These children (Hansel and Gretel) were brought back to life but were so afraid of their father that they ran away. The story follows Hansel and Gretel as they ran away and then make their way back to the castle fighting evil along the way. 

The author warns us the entire time that this is the true story of Hansel and Gretel and it's not the fairy tale that we have edited down for children these days. He wants us to know that the true story is dark and bloody. 

Head:

The author expected us to know the fairy tale version of Hansel and Gretel. The book was a lot darker than I had realized. As the chapters continued I thought to myself, "this can't get much worse" but it did. I think the most surprising chapter was “a smile as red as blood". This chapter was about a man who was infatuated with young girls. He would play with them and then eventually lure them into the woods alone where he would chop them up and eat them and trap their soul in cages (embodied in a white dove). I was very surprised that there was a chapter like this in a children's novel. All the red flags started going off as Gretel became more and more bewitched by this young man and wanted to be alone with him. I guess it does strengthen the point of stranger danger but not in a way I would have imagined. 

As I was studying for another class I made a connection with the story that would add a cool back story if it was true. Hansel and Gretel's mother is extremely obsessed with gold. To the point of accepting being kidnapped by the King because he had gold for her. This made me wonder if possibly she was the daughter of King Midas. 

Heart:

This book helped me realize that as a reader I enjoy mystery and gory stories. When I was reading I loved predicting where the story was going and what would happen next. I also realize that I can get annoyed with a book. When a character makes wrong decision after wrong decision, I can start to get frustrated. Luckily by the end the characters began realizing there mistakes and fixing their wrongs allowing for some relief. 

I also realized that trying to shield our students from dark and gory stories and "fluffing" everything up can be a big disservice to our kids. Teaching them everything always has a happy ending and everything always turns out fine sets them up to be shocked when life isn't always that way.