artist A. Weisgerber
In the past few years concerns have been voiced by "those concerned" about magic & wizardry in books such as in books such as the Harry Potter series and various others. Well, I just finished processing a very easy edition of Hansel & Gretel. Of course, it is a fairytale that I know very well from my childhood. I had this particular copy in hand. In this particular edition, one page is written in a small font with a fair number of lines, intended for the parent to read. The next page is written in a larger font with only a couple of lines, intended for a beginning reader to read. I was flipping through looking at the illustrations. I reached the part where the witch instructs Gretel to "Just poke your head inside the (oven) door!" The next page reads, :Gretel gave her a great big push! She pushed the witch right into the oven! Then she shut the huge iron door! And that was teh end of that old witch."
Granted it is a mean ol' witch...but Gretel just murdered her! Was it self-defense? Perhaps so...but we still just taught a kid that it's okay to kill somebody!!
Our parents never screamed ill over this, and these type of fairy tales. Interesting contrast to me.
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