Hansel & Gretel
By James Marshall

Retold by Mrs. Bottoms’ Second Grade Class

Collegiate School, Richmond, VA

 

Once upon a time there lived a little boy and girl named Hansel and Gretel.  They lived in a cottage in the woods with their father and evil stepmother.  They were extremely poor.   One night, Hansel overheard their stepmother telling their father to take the children into the woods, give them a piece of bread, and leave them there.  The father refused.  Finally, when they had zero money to buy food, and the stepmother kept nagging, the father agreed. (Even though he still did not want to.)

 

That night Hansel tiptoed outside and collected pebbles and put them in his pocket.  At dawn, their parents took them to cut wood in the forest.  They gave each child a piece of bread.  Gretel put it in her apron pocket because Hansel’s pockets were full of pebbles.  As they walked, Hansel kept turning back to look at the house but secretly he was dropping the pebbles on the path.  His stepmother said, “What are you doing?”

 

 Hansel said, “ I’m looking at the white kitten on the roof.”  The stepmother said, “You fool, that’s just the morning sun shining off of the chimney.

 

Their father made a fire and he and his wife went off to cut wood, leaving Hansel and Gretel by themselves.  Hansel and Gretel ate the bread and went to sleep.  When they awoke, they were all alone.  Their parents never came back for them! Gretel began to cry.  Hansel said to wait until the moon came out and everything would be all right.

 

When the moon came out, the pebbles shone in the dark, and Hansel and Gretel could follow them back to their house.  Their father was glad to see them. 

 

Several days later, the stepmother asked the father to try again.  This time when Hansel went to collect pebbles, the door was locked!  The next morning the stepmother gave them each a piece of bread smaller than the first time. They went deeper into the forest this time.  Hansel had to leave breadcrumbs on the path instead of pebbles.  As before, father built a fire and went off to cut wood.  He never returned.   When the moon came out, Hansel and Gretel found that the birds had eaten up all of the breadcrumbs.  They thought they knew the pathway home, but they found themselves lost in the woods.

 

After walking for several days, they found a cottage made out of candy.  They started to eat the cottage.  Gretel ate the sugar windowpanes until she was full.  Hansel ate some of the icing from the roof.  The cottage had lollipops, taffy, peppermints, and many other goodies on it.

 

Suddenly a witch appeared and said, “ Nibble, nibble like a mouse, who’s that nibbling at my house?”  The witch invited them into her house.  She fed them and put them to bed.

 

The next morning, the witch threw Hansel into a cage, and yelled at Gretel to get up to do work around the house.  Gretel was told to feed Hansel so he would fatten up so the witch could eat him.  Gretel cried.  Each time the witch went to check on Hansel, he would trick her by sticking out a bone.  The witch finally decided to eat him whether he was fat or not.  She told Gretel to fix the fire. She told Gretel to get in the oven to see if it was hot enough.  Gretel said she did not know how. The witch said, “I’ll show you.”  When the witch crawled into the oven, Gretel pushed her in and slammed the door.

 

Quickly, Gretel ran to free Hansel.  They went inside the house and took all of the gold and jewels they could carry. They knew they were very valuable.  Then they started for home.  They came to a river that they could not cross.  Gretel asked a duck to help carry them across to the other side.  The duck kindly agreed.  Soon Hansel and Gretel were home safe again.  Their stepmother had died.  Their father was eXcited to see them. They lived happily ever after.