Clever Gretchen - Hardcover

Grade 1-5-Striking a bargain with a stranger, a poor young man is able to win the hand of the mayor's daughter; seven years later, Gretchen's cleverness allows her and her husband to best the odd little man. Familiar to many readers as the title tale in Alison Lurie's Clever Gretchen and Other Forgotten Folktales (Crowell, 1980; o.p.), this picture-book version is retold with gentle humor and original phrases. Hans is described as "content to let life go by as it would" rather than "simple." The stranger who magically transforms him into the world's best huntsman is no longer a tall "Evil One," but a round little man "scarcely three feet tall," of whom Gretchen says mildly, "Dwarfs are full of magic, and not all of it is good." Some of the appealing watercolors are full double-page spreads, while others fill one page with an additional small detail spilling over onto the white background of the facing page of text. Hans and Gretchen's country village is portrayed as a place filled with wonderfully sympathetic animals. Hans's dog brings additional emotional depth to the story through his entertaining facial expressions, covering his eyes with his paws when he can't bear to see if Hans will successfully shoot the buttons off the steward's suspenders or looking smugly satisfied as Gretchen outwits the stranger. This is a delightful, captivating story, whether read aloud or individually.
Ginny Gustin, Sonoma County Library System, Santa Rosa, CA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 5-8. Gretchen and young Hans have set their hearts on each other, but her father stands between, declaring that only the world's finest hunter will marry his daughter. Up pops a little, goat-footed man who offers Hans preternatural abilities with a bow and arrow in exchange for signing a promise to do his bidding after seven years. Hans will be released from his devil's bargain only if he can ask a question the little gent can't answer--which turns out to be easy once he enlists the aid of his savvy wife. Wittmann, in her debut as an illustrator, places fresh-faced folk into spacious country scenes, creating such an air of good humor that even the diminutive trickster, with his fair, open features, doesn't seem too put out when he loses his battle of wits. Hans obviously isn't the brightest crayon in the box, but Stewig's shortened version of Howard Pyle's "Skillful Huntsman" is more about a couple making a happy, loving family together than who's clever and who's foolish. John Peters
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