This is a very traditional telling of "Hansel and Gretel" that is clear and easy to read. Like the Grimm version(s), the parents actually abandon the children in the forest to have less mouths to feed during a time of famine. The double page illustrations are spread through the story. Heavy black ink and swirling lines create a feeling of foreboding and general creepiness. Details are hard to see, and it might take prompting to get young readers to study and identify what's happening in each image. I wish that sentences didn't break at the end of pages followed by illustration spreads, though. So, not an earth-shattering version but a nice, simple telling of the classic story.